News and comments about divorce, child support, child custody, alimony, equitable property distribution, father’s rights, mother’s rights, family law, laws on divorce and other legal information in Maryland.
Heather Mills got that much in her divorce settlement with Sir Paul McCartney in 2008.
“Most of it’s been given to charity, gone into ethical businesses or paid for a couple of properties for my daughter’s future security,” said Mills in an interview on Shrink Wrap.
DigitalSpy.com reports the money has all been spent. It only took two years to spend it. I wonder how long it took McCartney to earn it?
An article from the St. Louis Post Dispatch says the hard economic times are causing some couples to stay together before, during and even after they divorce.
With home values shredded and retirement assets dwindling, many unhappy couples are realizing they don’t need to spend more money on divorce lawyers, and they are more willing to compromise and settle.
One husband said he didn’t have the money to move out, so the couple stayed together during the divorce, and when it got too stressful, he went to the movies or she went out with friends.
“My attorney was very up front with me,” he said. “She said, ‘The more you guys (argue) about this, the more it’s going to cost you.’”
I am not in favor of dirty tricks in a divorce. Others are not so straightforward. So it pays know what they are so you can defend yourself if they happen to you. According to English lawyer Marilyn Stowe, the top ten divorce dirty tricks are:
1. Moving the spouse to a different country in order to obtain a more favourable divorce settlement. (In the U.S. however, a spouse can move to more favorable state. This is called forum shopping.)
2. Covert surveillance of a spouse by bugging the phone, the car, the office — or by employing an enquiry agent. (Private detective in the U.S.)
3. Secretly photocopying every scrap of financial information in the house and office. Also: downloading everything from a spouse’s computer, and later pretending that he/she didn’t realise what he/she was doing. (Or destroying information after discovery issues in the U.S.)
4. Salting away as much money as possible, ready for that “rainy day”. (Dash Cash)
5. Damage, destruction, or sale of the household’s most valuable contents.
6. Spending money wildly, as a form of “payback”.
7. Assaulting the spouse and the new partner.
8. Using a “friend” as a spy, to gain access to the lawyer’s office and learn at firsthand what is going on.
9. “Conflicting out” the spouse’s lawyer.
10. If all else fails…running off with the divorce lawyer!
Read the complete article at First Wives World.
John Thyden was quoted in an article on Marriage and Money in Good Housekeeping:
“Financial issues are the primary reason for 90 percent of divorce cases I handle,” says John Thyden, a prominent Washington, D.C., divorce attorney. “But it isn’t necessarily the amount of money a couple has that tends to trip them up. It’s the differences in their spending habits and especially their lack of communication.”
And Mary Beth Long, who writes the VA Family Law Blog, had these mellifluous words to say about us:
“Keeping it short, succinct and entertaining. The gent who writes the Maryland Divorce Legal Crier has a neat style. It is like a New Yorker cartoon morphed into a family law blog: quirky, entertaining and thought-provoking but, best of all, brief. He may quote lyrics from a country song, give marriage preservation tips or explain the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic fraud. All is a couple hundred words. Bravo!”
I knew I should have paid more attention in math class.
Oxford Professor, James Murray, claims he has developed a mathematical model to predict divorce, according to an AFP article.
Murray and his team studied 700 new marriages for a twelve year period. They filmed the couples discussing issues like sex or money for fifteen minutes. Then they gave grades for each statement. Humor and affection got positive scores. Anger or defensiveness got negative scores.
The scores were used to predict the likelihood of divorce. The couples were then contacted every two years to see if they were still together or not. The results? Murray’s formula was correct 94% of the time.
‘This is worse than a divorce. I’ve lost half my money and I still have a wife.’
by
Abba
I work all night, I work all day, to pay the bills I have to pay
Ain’t it sad
And still there never seems to be a single penny left for me
That’s too bad
In my dreams I have a plan
If I got me a wealthy man
I wouldn’t have to work at all, I’d fool around and have a ball
Money, money, money
Must be funny
In the rich man’s world
Money, money, money
Always sunny
In the rich man’s world
Aha-ahaaa
All the things I could do
If I had a little money
It’s a rich man’s world
A man like that is hard to find but I can’t get him off my mind
Ain’t it sad
And if he happens to be free I bet he wouldn’t fancy me
That’s too bad
So I must leave, I’ll have to go
To Las Vegas or Monaco
And win a fortune in a game, my life will never be the same
