As expected, TLC reality star Kate Gosselin filed for divorce from her husband of ten years, Jon Gosselin this week in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania (Personal aside: My dad lives in Montgomery County! The Gosselins live in neighboring Berks County but filed in Montgomery. I didn’t realize he lived so close to “Jon and Kate Plus Eight”.) While Kate filed the complaint to initiate the divorce, she told People magazine that Jon wanted the divorce for quite some time and actually hired an attorney first.

Jon hired Philadelphia divorce attorney Charles J. Meyer even prior to the filing. Meyer is listed in the paperwork, indicating that attorneys for both parties were at least in touch with one another prior to heading to the courthouse. The choice of filing in a neighboring county (possibly in a failed attempt to throw off the media?) was, in fact, agreed upon by attorneys beforehand according to the Complaint (a copy of which can be found at TMZ.com).

The media initially jumped on one statement in the Complaint and completely misconstrued it. In seeking a no-fault divorce, Kate pleaded that the marriage was irretrievably broken. She also pleaded that, at the time of any hearing of the divorce, she would submit an affidavit showing that she and Jon had lived apart for two years. Initial reports reported that she claimed that they had been separated for two years prior to the filing of the divorce complaint.

This was clearly wrong. Pennsylvania has two procedural avenues to obtain a no-fault divorce – one is to claim that the marriage is irretrievably broken and have both parties agree to that fact; the other way is to claim an irretrievably broken marriage and a two-year separation. If forced to use that option, Kate would have to wait for two years to finalize the divorce.

Kate’s complaint merely puts both options on the table in the event there would be no agreement that the marriage was un-fixable. Seems like boilerplate language to me. Nothing worthy of the media uproar it caused.

Further review of the divorce complaint reveals nothing other than they haven’t yet agreed to a financial settlement. The former couple has reportedly agreed, at least on a temporary basis, to trade off spending time with their eight children in their new home. I’ve never seen an arrangement like that work for the long-term – so I anticipate that ultimately a more traditional custody arrangement will be reached.

TLC has placed the show on hiatus for the summer so that the family can handle these personal issues.

Meyer also currently represents Philadelphia 76ers player Andre Iguodala in a child support case. Kate hired local Montgomery County family law attorney Cheryl Young.

Also See:

Possible Jon & Kate Divorce Could Be Very Complicated

NBA star Dirk Nowitzki filed a petition in Dallas County, Texas, seeking a paternity test from his ex-girlfriend, Cristal Taylor, and sole custody of her unborn child if the tests indicate he is the father. Taylor is currently incarcerated in the Jefferson County (TX) Correctional Facility.

Taylor was reportedly living with Nowitzki in suburban Dallas until she was arrested May 6 on a warrant for a 2006 theft of services charge. She reportedly failed to pay for $11,000 worth of dental work. She also faces a 2000 probation violation in suburban St. Louis. Taylor told The Dallas Morning News she hid her criminal record from Nowitzki and that she did not discover her pregnancy until after her arrest.

ESPN.com has reported that the FBI has now obtained recordings of allegedly threatening phone calls Taylor made from the Jefferson County Correctional Facility to Robert Hart, Nowitzki’s attorney. She may also have demanded money, according to reports.

According to various sources, Taylor has had previous child custody issues. She allegedly has three other children – an 18-year-old girl, 15-year-old boy and 14-year-old girl – by three different men and all three children have been raised by Taylor’s family.

Nowitzki’s “Petition To Adjudicate Parentage,” indicates that Taylor has repeatedly made public statements that Nowitzki is the father of her child. The petition seeks “to establish the parent-child relationship between Petitioner and the child the subject of this suit in the event that it is determined that Petitioner is the biological father of the child.” Nowitzki asks the court to appoint him the sole managing conservator of the child if he is found to be the father, this is the language used in Texas family law for sole legal and physical custodian.

Taylor’s attorney has acknowledged that she was served with the paternity suit while in jail.

‘Gossip Girl’ actress Kelly Rutherford is apparently concerned that her estranged husband Daniel Giersch may leave the country with their two young children, Hermes and Helena, and flee to his native Germany. Rutherford filed an emergency application for a court order requiring Giersch to turn over a copy of his visa and all documents related to his visa application. Ultimately, Giersch and his attorney agreed to do so without a court order, stipulating that they would produce the documents by June 26.

Rutherford and Giersch split back in December 2008 and were immediately in court, slinging accusations of poor parenting at one another. They argued over whether their two-year-old son Hermes should accompany Rutherford to New York for the filming of her television show.

Earlier this month, the couple again made news when Rutherford gave birth to their daughter Helena and Giersch reportedly learned of the delivery from the media.

If Giersch were to leave the country with the children and without the permission of the court and/or the consent of Rutherford, it would likely amount to parental kidnapping. Ultimately, a treaty referred to as the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction would be called into play if that were to happen. Both the United States and Germany are party to this treaty and would theoretically cooperate to locate and return the children.

Also See:

‘Gossip Girl’ Divorce Allegations Fly

Singer Kelis, due in July with her first child, filed for divorce about six weeks ago from her husband of almost six years, rapper Nas. Now, she and her divorce attorney Laura Wasser have filed a motion asking the family court to order Nas to pay temporary spousal support, child support, pregnancy-related expenses and half of the baby’s medical expenses pending the resolution of the divorce case.

Kelis also wants Nas to pay about $20,000 for baby gear like strollers, cribs and more. She claims that she has no money and that Nas has not offered to pay anything related to the baby or its impending birth.

Financial statements filed in support of these requests indicate that Kelis made approximately $21,000 per month for the last six months. Her expenses, however, are almost $81,000 a month (she estimates Nas’s monthly expenses at $120,000). Like many recording artists, Kelis makes a substantial amount of her income from concert tours. She has not toured in about a year due to the pregnancy and her attendance at culinary school in 2008.

EOnline.com has a copy of the paperwork filed for temporary support. In it, Kelis and Wasser claim that Nas has failed to provide any information or documentation about his income and expenses despite several requests. They further claim that there have been several requests for Nas to pay some bills related to the marital home in L.A. (one of five marital homes, apparently) as well as bills related to Kelis’s pre-natal care. They allege that those requests have gone unanswered.

The matter is set for hearing on July 21, 2009 – which is also the baby’s due date. Child support cannot be awarded until there is actually a child to be supported. And spousal support can be ordered retroactive to the date of the initial divorce filing.

Nas is represented by L.A. divorce attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan. Kaplan and Wasser know each other well. Kaplan represents Kevin Federline and Wasser represents Britney Spears in their divorce/custody matters.

Also See:

Kelis and Nas Divorcing

According to R&B singer Usher’s Petition for Divorce, filed last week in Fulton County, Georgia, he and estranged wife Tameka Foster Raymond actually separated last July. The former couple had their second son in December 2008, so Tameka was three or four months pregnant at the time of the split.

Instead of a two year marriage, it looks like the couple was together for just under a year. An eleven-month marriage will certainly make it more difficult for Foster to receive substantial alimony and property distribution judgments in this divorce.

EOnline.com obtained a copy of the documents filed in court on Friday by Usher’s attorney Ivory T. Brown (In the court documents, Brown strangely insists on spelling her name with only lower-case letters.) In addition to the Petition for Divorce, Usher also submitted initial discovery documents to Foster. These are standard requests for the production of documents that might be used as evidence in the case and standard interrogatories or questions to be answered under oath. Discovery allows each party to adequately prepare for trial and/or settlement negotiations.

EOnline speculates that some of the requests indicate that Foster will allege infidelity on Usher’s part and that she hired a private detective to investigate her suspicions. Usher’s discovery requests include a request for the disclosure of copies of “notes, cards, letters, photographs, film, documents, tapes, voice recordings, gift, jewelry, clothes” or other evidence that reflects on Usher’s conduct during their marriage, as well as detective reports, photos or recordings that have resulted from either “surveillance or investigation” of the singer.

I am hesitant to read too much into discovery requests. Divorce attorneys often use very broad interrogatories and requests for production of documents. This could just be a “scorched earth” set of requests. Or there could be private detective reports and surveillance. Or it could even be a matter of calling someone’s bluff if unfounded allegations have been made. There is really no sense in speculating this early in the case.

Foster has hired high-profile Atlanta family law attorney, Randy Kessler. Kessler has previously represented the mother of rapper T.I.’s children, the mother of boxer Evander Holyfield’s child, mothers of basketball player Jason Caffey’s children, the mother of football player Andre Rison’s children, football player Travis Henry and rapper Juvenile.

Also See:

• Usher Files for Divorce

R&B star Usher filed for divorce on Friday in Atlanta, Georgia. The singer and his wife Tameka Foster Raymond lived in Atlanta with their two sons, Usher Raymond V and Naviyd. Both boys are under two – the older boy born a few months after the couple married; the younger boy born just this past December.

The former couple was married in August 2007 in Atlanta but rumors indicated that they had been living apart for the last several months. Usher has been temporarily living in Las Vegas, working on an album.

Earlier this year, Foster suffered cardiac arrest during a cosmetic surgery procedure in Brazil. Usher canceled a Grammy party performance to fly to Brazil. Reports indicate that, prior to the emergency, Usher did not even know his wife was in Brazil for surgery.

Foster was originally Usher’s stylist. They announced their engagement in March 2007. Usher then called off the first, lavishly-planned wedding in New York, only to marry Tameka later in Georgia. Rumors indicated that the original wedding was canceled because Usher’ mother/manager disapproved.

Foster has three sons from previous relationships. The existence of a prenuptial agreement is unknown at this time – but I would be quite surprised if there was no prenup, especially if the reports of Usher’s mother’s disapproval are accurate. Even without a prenup, Usher’s pay-out would probably be relatively limited due to the short term of the marriage.

The marital assets (the assets acquired by the couple during their marriage, i.e., the last 21 months) are the only assets to which Foster would have any legal claim unless Usher titled previously-held assets as jointly held. She will be awarded child support, assuming that she gets joint or sole physical custody of the children.

She may or may not receive alimony. This may be covered in a prenuptial agreement. If not, or if there is no agreement, Georgia courts look at several factors in determining whether or not to award alimony. The factors include: (1) the standard of living during the marriage, (2) the duration of the marriage, (3) the age, physical condition, and emotional condition of the parties, (4) the financial resources of each party, (5) the time necessary to obtain gainful employment, (6) each party’s contribution to the marriage, (7) the financial condition of the parties and (8) any other relevant factor.

Foster has positive and negative factors in her case for alimony. Clearly, there was a high standard of living during the marriage. But the marriage didn’t even last two years and Foster was gainfully employed immediately prior to the wedding. She is capable of supporting herself again.

Don’t get me wrong – Foster will likely come out of this brief marriage with a relatively large amount of money especially after a child support award is made. She just won’t be quite as financially flush as she was when she was married.

Controversial baseball star Barry Bonds and his wife of 11 years, Liz Watson, have split. Watson filed for legal separation this week in  Los Angeles Superior Court. Watson’s filing seeks spousal support and joint custody of the couple’s 10-year-old daughter, Aisha.

While it is not known whether the couple has a prenuptial agreement, my guess is that they probably do. Bonds is no stranger to family court litigation, having battled his first wife over the validity of their prenup for over six years.

Sun Branco was married to Bonds from 1988 until 1994. She alleged that the slugger physically and emotionally abused her. He testified that he kicked her one time after she kicked him. The case continued over whether Branco, who is from Sweden, understood the prenup, signed a day before their Las Vegas wedding. The case went to the California Supreme Court, where the prenup was upheld.

Bonds currently holds baseball’s career home run record but is awaiting trial in federal court on perjury charges, accused of lying under oath when he told a grand jury that he had never knowingly taken banned substances. After his 2007 indictment, he spoke glowingly of Watson and their commitment to one another.

A key prosecution witness in the criminal case though is Kim Bell, who has said that Bonds confided to her that he was using steroids. Bell claims that she began dating Bonds in 1994, during his divorce from Sun. She says that their relationship continued for five more years, even after he married Watson. News of the affair surely put strain on the Bonds marriage.

Bonds’ last contract with the San Francisco Giants expired in 2007. He has not been signed by any other team since.

The American media has been abuzz for several weeks about the marital problems of Jon Gosselin and Kate Gosselin, stars of TLC’s reality series, “Jon and Kate Plus Eight“. Tabloids have alternately accused Jon of cheating with a 23-year-old woman and Kate of cheating with her bodyguard. The couple certainly doesn’t help matters with their near-constant, on-camera bickering. Yesterday, I read a piece which claimed that Jon did a phone interview with People magazine from a New York divorce attorney’s office.

So, what would the potential divorce of these two entail? Ultimately, any Gosselin divorce would cover exactly what typical divorces do. Their marriage would be legally terminated. They would divide their assets and debts. They would have a custody and visitation order. There would be child support and possibly spousal support. The variables in this case, though, are obvious.

The Gosselins live in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania, like most states, has a no-fault divorce option although an at-fault divorce can still be pursued as well. The grounds for at-fault divorce in Pennsylvania are abandonment for more than a year, adultery, endangerment of a spouse’s life or health, bigamy or imprisonment for more than two years. Fault, though, plays no role in the division of property and a very limited role in the award of spousal support. So, it would be unnecessary for either Jon or Kate to allege adultery or any other at-fault ground to obtain a divorce.

The division of property in Pennsylvania is achieved by equitable distribution – a division which is fair under the specific circumstances of the case. In this situation, it will likely be “fair and equitable” to provide the party with physical custody of the kids a slightly greater than 50% share of the marital assets.

Property division, of course, can be affected by the existence of a prenup. It would be very surprising though to discover that Jon and Kate have a prenuptial agreement, as they were young when first married and years away from fame and fortune. They now have a $1 million dollar estate and, presumably, substantial marital assets as a result of the television show and other related appearances. If any of the assets have been placed in trust for the children, those assets may or may not be distributed to the parents in the divorce (it would depend on the language of the trust agreement).

Based solely on Kate’s personality as portrayed on the television show, I would be very surprised if she agreed to a shared custody arrangement of the children. I would anticipate joint legal custody, primary physical custody of the kids to Kate with regular visitation with Jon. There is certainly no law that gives preference to Kate as the mother – this is just my speculation based on their behaviors on the show.

I would foresee the stickiest issue in any potential Gosselin divorce to be support – child support and spousal support. Although Pennsylvania, like other states, has established Child Support Guidelines to calculate appropriate levels of support, the Gosselin case would probably not use those guidelines for two reasons. First, the guidelines do not anticipate families with eight children. And second, the guidelines only deal with families who make up to $15,000 per month. Instead of performing a simple calculation, the court would have to determine what the children’s “reasonable needs” were. With eight children and a modicum of fame, determination of those “needs” may not be so simple.

The Gosselins reportedly make $75,000 per episode (and TLC recently ordered 40 more episodes to be made). Jon no longer works outside the home. So, if he were to be ordered to pay child support, the major question would be “what is his income going forward?” If TLC continued the show, filming the story of a divorced couple with eight kids, then the answer would be easy. If the show goes away with the marriage though, Jon no longer makes half of $3,000,000 a year. The court would have to determine his earning capacity in order to set a child support amount.

As Kate seems to be the more media-savvy spouse, I could see her parlaying her fame into continued appearance and book income, even without a show (or selling the idea of a reality show following a single mom with eight kids). Still, her income may not be regular or conducive to speculation and imputation.

All of which brings us to spousal support. Traditionally, spousal support (or alimony or maintenance, depending on your jurisdiction) is awarded to a wife with a lesser-income-producing-capability. Here though, it is very possible that Kate is able to out-earn Jon, post-divorce. In Pennsylvania, alimony (when ordered in a case along with child support) is set at 30% of the difference between the net earnings of each party. If the spouse requesting alimony is found to be “at-fault” for the divorce, alimony can be denied.

So, interestingly, Kate has the potential to be the greater earner and Jon has the potential to be denied alimony due to his alleged adultery. However, if Kate were to negotiate a new “single mom” show, a joint legal custody order would likely require Jon to okay any appearance of the children on the show – this would obviously be a negotiation strength for him in any settlement negotiation or mediation.

I’m sure that Jon Gosselin will hire an aggressive attorney to combat Kate in any possible divorce action. He’ll need all the help he can get – based on Kate’s personality as depicted on the show, I don’t see her letting any of this occur quietly or without a fight.

TV and film uber-producer Brian Grazer (I’d list some of his bigger projects but the list is ridiculous – better to just check his bio at imdb.com) has finalized his divorce from Gigi Levangie, his wife of 11 years. Levangie wrote The Starter Wife, a book (now television series) about a writer who gets dumped by her Hollywood film studio head husband just shy of their 10 year anniversary. Hmm.

As part of the settlement, Levangie will reportedly receive a lump sum payment of $4.5 million as well as $8.75 million to pay the remaining balance of a mortgage on a piece of property that is titled in her name. She allegedly asked for nearly $1 million a month in child support and spousal support but instead receive $40,000 a month in child support for their two children, sons ages 10 and 5. No word on the spousal support or other property distribution although it’s my understanding that there was a solid prenuptial agreement in place to protect Grazer’s assets.

Grazer will also pay Levangie’s attorneys’ fees of $488,977. He was given just over a week to make the payments.

Levangie is Grazer’s third wife – he was married for seven years in the ’70s; from 1982 to 1992 to his second wife and then from 1997 until now to Levangie. Grazer originally filed for legal separation from Levangie back in 2006 but withdrew those papers. He ultimately filed for divorce in 2007. He was represented by Hollywood divorce attorney Robert Kaufman.

Actor Sean Penn has filed a motion to withdraw or dismiss his petition for legal separation from wife Robin Wright Penn, just weeks after the papers were filed. All that is left is for a Marin County (California) Superior Court judge to sign off on the dismissal.

Wright Penn had not yet responded to Penn’s April 24 filing. She had 30 days under California’s rules of procedure to file her written response.

“[The filing] was an arrogant mistake,” Penn told the New York Daily News.

The dismissal sparks a serious case of deja vu. Penn and Wright Penn filed competing divorce actions in Marin County back in December 2007. That divorce case was dismissed at their request in April 2008. Fast forward a year, Penn won an Academy Award and curiously failed to thank Wright Penn in his acceptance speech. Within weeks, he filed for legal separation.

Penn’s petition indicated that he sought joint physical and legal custody of their children, daughter Dylan, 18 and son Hopper, 15 and hoped to avoid paying any spousal support to Wright Penn. Will we see these two in the family court again? My guess is probably so – but we’ll have to wait and see.

Also see: 

Sean Penn Files for Separation