Ray Hrdlicka – Host – Attorneys.Media
There’s another example in this article, and great actor, love the actor, you know, Kevin Costner, when he got divorced. And it was a contentious divorce. But the article, you know, there was a lot of stuff written about it. I’m just going to mention, you know, a couple of things. Because the numbers just basically moved the digits over.
What was her name? Christine Baumgarten, his ex-wife. She asked for, in the divorce, asked for $248,000 a month in child support, you know, obviously a number… people could afford it, right? Because it was, you know, obviously they’re multi-millionaires. Costner claimed and offered he would pay her $52,000, and so they go back and forth on this… in court, what did the court do… King Solomon – split it damn near right down the middle. $130,000 a month.
Now again, this is, you know, rich celebrities… you move a decimal point over and you’re starting to get to reality now with the rest of us but my… my question is… was that just what the court is always going to do, is come somewhere in the middle?
Bill Leininger – Divorce Mediation Attorney – Staten Island, NY and Sarasota FL
Frequently, a judge won’t do that for a very practical reason. Think about it. If the judge gets a reputation for doing that, then the person who wants to be the greedy litigant is going to puff up the number and ask for $400,000 because the work that happens, they’re going to go, it’s down the middle.
Rather, a good divorce judge would probably award a reasonable amount, and let’s say, 40, $50,000 a month, and let all the divorce lawyers in town know you can have these absurd numbers. You’re just going to hurt your case, okay? Right. Be reasonable, understanding that someone who has or 10 or $20 million of your income is not constrained to the average two or $3,000 a month, but the judge wants everyone to realize… don’t puff up your affidavits. I’ve been around the block a few times. Okay.
Ray Hrdlicka – Host – Attorneys.Media
So, there was another part to this article that was really interesting. The article claimed, and we previously talked about you… talking about the insane attorney’s fees on a divorce, not divorce mediation, which is a hell of a lot better and easier, but the insane attorney’s fees that can be generated upon a traditional divorce proceeding, right?
Costner and his ex-wife publicly hashed it out over, and I couldn’t believe this when I read this, over bowls, TVs, and pots and pans. Do you find that to be the case in some of your experience? You know, I’m not asking you to comment on his, but do you find that such… people are so engrossed in their position, you know, concrete, you know, around the legs… in their position that they won’t move?
Bill Leininger – Divorce Mediation Attorney – Staten Island, NY and Sarasota FL
I’ve had cases where, and these people were not extremely, extremely wealthy. The biggest case I’ve ever had in divorce was $275,000, but these people were crazy. Even though the divorce hadn’t been granted, and I warned them, you cannot try to schedule a wedding or get married, but they went to a country in Africa and got married.
And within two hours, it was a very tight-knit religious community. And my client lived in Brooklyn, and then they went to South Africa, and they got married. In other words, my client married another person before they were divorced. And everyone knew, everyone knew in Brooklyn it’s that now, within hours of what took place. And there were religious leaders involved, and it’s just so… you’ll have people, not necessarily TV publicity, but people who… They just want to do what they want to do. And even though you warn them and you say, be careful, don’t say anything that you don’t want thrown up to you in court and everything else, well, obviously you can’t get divorced until a judge gives you your freedom.
Those people said, hell, that, we don’t care about that. We’re going to get… divorced. We’re going to get remarried before we’re divorced and that type of thing. So, a lot of times it’s because they may have very good divorce lawyers, but some people just want to do what they want to do, and they don’t really care about the effects of it on that case.