Also See: The Biggest Divorce Awards in History

Ex Beatle, Paul McCartney married model Heather Mills in June 2002, and had one daughter together - Beatrice. McCartney and Mills separated in 2006 and have been involved in a contentious divorce battle in the English Courts. Mills, whose original legal team is no longer involved, is now representing herself in the complicated divorce proceedings - almost unheard of because she stands to receive a reported £200 million (about $400 million). McCartney’s estate is estimated to be worth about £750 million (about $1.5 billion). It is likely that the public will never really know exactly what Mills will receive in the divorce because in Britain all divorce proceedings are closed to the public. Also, it is highly likely that the parties will enter into a confidentiality agreement in which they agree to keep the terms of the award secret. But many commentators have speculated that this could be the largest divorce award in British history! [3/17/2008 Update: McCartney-Mills Final Divorce Settlement]

Why Didn’t McCartney Have a Prenup?

Continue reading "One of the Most Expensive Divorces Ever: Paul McCartney and Heather Mills"

Pamela Anderson, the former Baywatch star and famous Playboy Playmate, has filed to annul her marriage of two months to movie producer Rick Salomon. According to court documents, Anderson cited “fraud” as the reason for the annulment.

Private Judge

Anderson elected to have her divorce case heard by a retired judge instead of in the Los Angeles Superior Court. People usually choose to use a private judge in order to keep their divorce confidential. In a standard divorce hearing, members of the public and other litigants are in the courtroom when your case is heard. On top of that - and many people do not realize this - all papers filed in Court become public record; for celebrities this is often worth avoiding by working with a private judge. Anyone can have their case heard by a private judge in order to keep it confidential, but private judges are expensive, sometimes charging as much as $10,000 - $50,000 up front, and then hundreds of dollars per hour beyond the initial retainer.

Annulment

Although the term annulment is thrown around a lot in popular media, obtaining an annulment is not easy and the court does not grant them often. An annulment is a request from the Court to “undo” the marriage as if it never happened. When you are granted an annulment you are not “divorced” - rather it makes it as if the parties were never married. One of the grounds for an annulment is fraud, which means that a party was misled by the other party about something fundamental to the marriage. For example, if one party finds out after marriage that the other party really does not want children (even though they previously represented that they did) that may constitute fraud and be grounds for an annulment. Another important repercussion of an annulment is that no spousal support (alimony) is awarded, because the marriage essentially never legally happened.

Anderson cited “fraud” as her basis for annulment. It is likely that we will not find out the details about Anderson’s claim of fraud since her case is now before a private judge, but if Anderson did not have a premarital agreement with Salomon, she may very well be seeking an annulment in order to avoid paying spousal support.

Terry Bollea (Hulk Hogan) and wife Linda were married for 24 years when Linda filed for divorce in Florida in November 2007. The media was aware that the couple was having marital problems when the couple attended therapy on their reality television show “Hogan Knows Best.”

There have been recent reports that Terry was having an affair with his daughter, Brooke’s, friend, 33 year old Christine Plante. According to Ms. Plante, the affair was not the cause of the divorce, and it began after Linda and Terry had already talked about ending their marriage.

How Will the Affair Affect the Divorce?

Custody: Florida is a no fault divorce state which means that when seeking a divorce a person must only show that the marriage is “irretrievably broken.” An affair may call into question the moral fitness of a spouse and could affect child custody issues, but in the Hogan (Bollea) case one child (Brooke) is no longer a minor and the other (Nick) is seventeen years old, so there will be no custody issues. Courts usually defer to the preference of teenage children 16 years or older when determining what parent the child will live.

Property: An affair by one spouse could have an impact on the divsion of marital property. For example, the spouse having the affair may buy gifts for his or her girlfriend/boyfriend or pay for trips. If the spouse uses community property funds to make these purchases, then the spouse responsible for those expenses must pay them back. A spouse involved in a dissolution proceeding who knows or suspects that his/her wife or husband had an affair during the marriage should review credit card statements and bank statements to determine whether their spouse spent any community funds on gifts or expenses for the boyfriend or girlfriend. These are the types of expenses that the offending spouse must pay back.

So, since Florida is a no-fault state, Linda has no legal recourse in terms of being entitled to more than she normally would in the divorce, but there are certainly precautions that she can take to ensure that she does get not end up “paying” more for the affair than she has to.

Football great, Jerry Rice and his wife of 20 years, Jacqueline, are divorcing. In June 2007, Jacqueline filed for divorce in San Mateo county, California. She is represented by Lindy Barocchi, and Jerry is represented by Stephen Montavlo. Both attorneys are certified family law specialists, which means they have extensive expereience praticing family law in the San Francisco Bay Area.*

According to media reports, Jerry had extramarital affairs throughout the marriage - and in 2002, he was involved in a paternity suit filed in Arizona. But since California is a no fault divorce state, however, whether or not Jerry had extramarital affairs will have no impact on the court’s rulings in his divorce from Jacqueline.

It has been published that Jerry and Jacqueline had no premarital agreement (pre-nup). This is likely accurate, given the fact that the two married twenty years ago - when premarital agreements were not nearly as prevalant as they are today. If there is no pre-nup, the ruling will probably be straight forward: Jacqueline will be entitled to half of the marital estate. Since the size of Rice marital estate is significant (the parties are selling the family residence in Atherton, California, for example, which is reportedly listed at $22 million), Jacqueline will likely not be awarderd spousal support (alimony). Chances are the courts will find that she will have sufficient income from the assets she is awarded to meet her needs, which effectively eliminates her eligibility for alimony.

*Legal Specialization (also called certification) in the area of family law is a designation that, in states where it is offered, tells of an attorney’s practice’s emphasis on the area of family law. Interestingly, even celebrities who can afford most any lawyer they want sometimes choose to be represented by lawyers who are not certified family law specialists, perhaps based on those lawyers’ experience in handling other types of celebrity cases.

As mentioned in a previous post, Tom Brady has child support obligations to ex-girlfriend Bridget Moynahan and their child. But news and updates on the subject have been predictably absent from the press. Tom Brady has a brand to protect, and a quick and quiet resolution is definitely in his best interest. That doesn’t mean people have stopped asking questions about the resolution, though, so we put a few “what if” questions of our own to resident family law expert, Monica Mazzei:

Q: Given the situation, and the image that Brady has to protect, what would you recommend a client in Brady’s situation do?
A: I would advise Brady to voluntarily pay child support. This would be done through reaching an agreement outside of court that provides that the amount paid by Brady meets the child’s needs. Voluntarily paying child support will most likely keep Moyahan from filing for support in the court system which means that Brady’s finances will be kept out of the public record. Also, making voluntarily payments will show that Brady is responsible and help him maintain his all-American image.

Q: Tom Brady makes $10 Million a year from his NFL contract alone. What amount might Tom be ordered to pay in child support if a court ruled on the issue?
A: With an income of $10 million per year, Brady would be considered a high wage earner (meaning traditional support guidlines would not apply to him). The court would most likely base support on the needs of the child, keping in mind that the child should share the same lifestyle as the high wage earning parent. For a young child under the age of one, sharing in the lifestyle of one of the NFL’s highest paid athletes, expenses could range from $20,000 to $100,000 per month.

Q: How much might Moynahan have accepted as a volutary child support payment?
A: This is a difficult question to answer. Arguably, Moynahan would not have accepted less than the amount needed to meet the monthly needs of the child. On the other hand, Brady may have paid more than the “monthly needs” amount in an attempt to stay out of court, which is expensive, time consuming, and possibly damaging to his career.

Q: If Moynahan accepted Brady’s amount of voluntary child support, would she be able to pursue a greater amount at a later date?
A: Moynahan is never precluded from going into court at any time to ask for more support.

When celebrities are getting divorced, involved in a paternity suit or are seeking a prenup they often turn to what are recognized as the biggest celebrity divorce attorneys in Los Angeles.

The majority of big divorce, paternity, and child custody cases are kept under the radar. But when a case goes public, the high powered family lawyers handling celebrity cases can get nearly as much press as their famous clients. High net worth individuals, and celebrities in particular, need an attorney who is not only an expert in the field of family law, but who is familiar with the judges in the Los Angeles Superior Court, and who can keep their divorce out of the tabloids and as low key as possible.

What follows is a list of the top celebrity divorce attorneys in Los Angeles and some of their more famous clients:

Continue reading "Top Celebrity Divorce Lawyers in Los Angeles"

Travis Barker of the band Blink 182 and former Miss USA, Shana Moakler, were married in October 2004. After the parties married the couple gained popularity in their own reality show on MTV, “Meet The Barkers.” In August 2006, Barker filed for divorce, and the two were public about the fact that their relationship was not working out. In a much publicized MySpace blog, Barker accused Moakler of being an inattentive mother, caring only about partying and not parenting. Moakler, on the other hand, accused Barker of being unfaithful. In November 2006, Moakler even threw heself a “divorce party” at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

Surprisingly, Barker and Moakler reconciled in March 2007 and Barker withdrew his divorce petition. However, recently it has been reported that the parties have again decided to split and Maokler has moved out of the family home. It is not known whether either party has refiled for divorce.

Many people believe that infidelity, such as Moakler accused Barker of, is relevant to a divorce proceeding. In some states it is, but in California, there is “no fault” divorce, which means that whether a spouse has been unfaithful is not relevant to the divorce and will not affect the division of property or support. So, Moakler’s accusations that Barker had an affair during the marriage will not be relevant to their divorce case.

However, Barker’s accusations that Moakler has poor parenting skills will be relvant to custody and visitation of the parties two children, Landon and Alabama. In a divorce, if the Court found that Moakler lacked sufficient parenting skills and that it was not in the best interests of the children to be in Molaker’s care the majority of time, Moakler’s visitation time could be severly limited and Barker could be granted primiary physical custody of the children.

On December 14, 2007 actress/model Pamela Anderson filed for divorce from Rick Salomon in Los Angeles Superior Court after only two months of marriage.

Anderson and Salomon married on October 6, 2007, in Las Vegas. But because Anderson and Salomon are residents of Los Angeles, Anderson was required to file for divorce in Los Angeles. Many people assume that a person must file for divorce in the state they were married, however, the law requires that a petition for dissolution (the form filed for divorce) be filed in the state and county in which one or both parties have resided for at least six months.

Shortly after Anderson filed for divorce she withdrew her petition which stopped the divorce process from continuing. A party who files a petition for dissolution may withdraw the petition, or “stop” the divorce, at any time before the final judgment has been entered. The final judgment is entered when the final agreement between the parties (regarding the division of property) has been filed and processed with the court. Then once a judgment is submitted to the court it generally takes the court about 6 months to enter it.

So, because Anderson decided to reconcile with Salomon (she says “We are working things out…”), it was necessary for her to withdraw, or cancel, the petition for dissolution she filed in order to prevent the divorce process from continuing. In the case that Anderson and Salomon are unable to “work things out,” Anderson will have to re-file a petition for dissolution.

According to reports, Hulk Hogan’s wife Linda, filed for divorce in mid November. Apparently Hogan (whose legal name is Terry Gene Bollea) learned that Linda filed a petition for dissolution when he received a call from a reporter. The parties have been married for 24 years and have two children together, Brooke and Nick. Hulk Hogan is a former professional wrestler and the Hogan family has a popular reality show on MTV called “Hogan Knows Best.”

Nick is facing felony charges for reckless driving from an auto accident which left his passenger with severe brain damage. Some speculate that the strain on the family caused by Nick’s accident may have contributed to the parties’ divorce. However, an episode of Hogan Knows Best shows the parties attending marriage counseling, indicating that there was a rift between the couple well before the accident.

Terry and Linda were married in Los Angeles, California, but Linda filed for divorce in Florida. Legally, a party must meet a state’s residency requirements in order to file for divorce in that state. Since Linda and Hogan having been living in Florida they did not meet the residency requirements of California which requires that at least one party live in California for at least six months “immediately prior to the filing of the petition.” (see: California Petition for Dissolution, Form FL-100)

The parties only have one child under the age of eighteen, Nick. In her petition for dissolution Linda requested primary physical custody of Nick, which means that Nick would reside with Linda the majority of time and have visitation with Hogan. Since Nick is seventeen years old, the court will probably let him decide who he wants to live with the majority of time. The courts recognize that a minor of this age is able to decide which parent they want to live with. The courts also recognize that it would be extremely difficult to force a seventeen year old to reside with a parent he or she does nor want to live with.

Lance Bass, former pop star of the boy band *N-Sync, gained additional notoriety in 2006 when he came out to the media announcing that he is gay. Recently Lance’s ex boyfrined, Reichen Lehmkuh, former winner on the television show “The Amazing Race,” sent a letter to Lance’s rep threatening to sue Lance for the defamatory remarks the star allegedly made about Reichen in an interview for GQ magazine.

Because Lance and Reichen were not registered as domestic partners, there were none of the legal ramifications normally associated with a divorce. Lance and Reichen have probably made the personal choice not to register as Domestic Partners, but there is also a possibility that they did not meet the requirements for domestic partnership established by California (Family Code Section 297-297.5)

Who can register as Domestic Partners in California?

Same sex couples - or heterosexual couples over the age of 62 - who meet certain requirements can register as domestic partners in California. A couple is not legally recognized as domestic partners unless they are registered in California.

What Does It Mean to be Domestic Partners?

All couples who are registered as Domestic Partners will have all the rights and obligations as married couples. This means that community property laws apply - so, any property obtained during the partnership or any monies earned will become community property.

Without being registered Lance and Reichen (like any other couple) are not afforded the protection of California marital laws, or subject to community property laws. So aside from the civil defamation suit, we shouldn’t be seeing the couple in court - and definitely not in Family Court.