Florida Divorce * Child Custody * Domestic Violence Law Lawyer | Boynton Beach

Former Wife hasn’t had a credit card in years, since her ex refused to pay off a debt as court-ordered.

An accountant recommends the following steps to repair (or establish) your own credit after divorce:

1. Address any black marks on your credit history with the credit reporting agencies and clear things up as best you can.

2. Be prepared to start over, most likely with a secured credit card with a low credit limit. Apply for unsecured credit every year or so.

3. Earn more money.

Read more in this CreditCards.com article: Tips for rebuilding your credit after divorce.

I previously posted about the recently emerging medical specialty of child abuse pediatrics in Progressive? Advanced Study and Training in Child Abuse Emerges.

Since then, physicians have taken the board certification examination and 183 have become the first diplomates in child abuse pediatrics.

The Oklahoma physician who spearheaded recognition of this area of specialization believes this training will cause false allegations to break down and will facilitate building legal cases to address legitimate claims.

Discrediting false allegations keeps sound families intact.

Just in Tulsa County, twelve hundred kids are treated each year for child abuse, with two hundred of them being admitted to hospitals.

In the state of Oklahoma, the annual cost of child abuse and neglect is over $270 million for foster care and medical and psychological treatment.

Nationwide, approximately six million children each year are reported to be abused.

Read more in this Tulsa World article: OU-Tulsa pediatrics educator behind new child-abuse subspecialty.

Catholic Husband and Jewish Wife have three year old Daughter.

Husband and Wife are in the midst of a divorce.

Husband is currently a law student.

Court has awarded Wife temporary custody of Daughter.

Husband and Wife reportedly agree that Daughter will be raised in the Jewish faith.

Nonetheless, Husband has Daughter baptized … and doesn’t tell Wife about it until afterwards.

Upon Wife’s motion, Court then enters a temporary order enjoining or prohibiting Husband from schooling Daughter in any religion besides Judaism.

Then Husband takes Daughter to a Catholic mass … with TV reporters in tow.

Wife seeks to have Husband held in criminal contempt by the Court.

A new judge is assigned to the matter at the instance of Husband’s attorney.

The contempt hearing has yet to be set.

Read more in this UPI news article: Couple fight over 3-year-old’s religion.

Good question. Incapable of being answered accurately.

Certainly, domestic violence restraining orders tend to help the people who get them.

Tend to help.

The people who get them.

But lots of domestic abuse victims are too terrified to ever consider seeking one.

For instance, eighty-seven percent of New York City’s victims of “family-related” deaths last year did not have an injunction for protection against domestic violence against their abuser.

Even those victims of abuse who are brave enough to seek protection on a temporary basis often lose their nerve for making it last, after their abuser finds out about it. Such temporary orders of protection expire quickly.

Even where the abuse victim is brave enough to ask for protection at a full hearing, the Court will not always issue one for one reason or another.

Even where all of the above hurdles are overcome, sometimes it is very, very difficult to personally serve the abuser with a domestic violence restraining order.

That happens more frequently than you might imagine. At best, this can drag the entire process out and wear the victim (and his or her finances) down. At worst, the abuser cannot be served timely enough and the order of protection expires.

Last year a woman obtained a temporary injunction for protection against domestic violence against a top aide to New York State’s governor. The aide could not be served in compliance with applicable legal requirements (or he was but that was never communicated to the victim).

And then there are the cases where the abuser disregards the order of protection.

Clearly, injunctions for protection against domestic violence leave room for improvement.

Read more in this New York Times article: Case Revives Debate Over Protection Orders.

According to a website which appears to be published by Arabs living in the Arab world:

Groom, an Arab ambassador in the United Arab Emirates, enters a contract for marriage with Bride, a physician, without ever gazing directly upon her countenance (apparently because it is always partially concealed behind her veil).

Bride’s Mother reportedly shows Groom photographs that are supposed to be of Bride, but which are really of Bride’s sister.

When Groom finally sees Bride without her veil, after signing the marriage contract, Bride allegedly is cross-eyed and has a beard.

Groom is not happy.

Groom cancels wedding and files for divorce.

Groom also asks Bride to reimburse his expenditures on gifts of jewelry and clothes for Bride.

This may be an example of a situation where the permissible grounds for divorce may have great significance.

Read more in this Waleg article: Arab Man Seeks Divorce After Seeing His Wife’s Face.

Has your spouse hidden assets?

Is your spouse’s business doing a lot worse since you started discussing divorce?

Are you completely in the dark about your spouse’s income and assets?

All of these are circumstances in which it may be necessary or advantageous to retain forensic accountants to “follow the money”.

Especially where a stake in a closely held corporation is involved.

Forensic accountants are trained to ferret out diverted assets, hidden money and to uncover mismatches between reported income and lifestyle.

Of course, the specialized training and expertise of forensic accountants comes with a hefty price tag. Therefore, they may not be appropriate in all cases.

One thing to keep in mind is that forensic findings can have tax ramifications for one or both spouses.

The report can also facilitate valuation of the business for purposes of property division.

Read more in this Mondaq article: United States: The Role Of Forensic Accountants In Divorce Engagements.

French Husband and American Wife divorce in France, where Husband, Wife and Son have been living.

Husband and Wife enter agreement that Son will live with Husband in France.

Wife has timesharing with Son in US for last year’s Christmas holiday. Wife is expected to send Son back to France on January 3rd of this year.

But Wife keeps Son with her.

Husband files for Son’s return to France under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

In a Colorado trial court, Wife alleges that Husband perpetrated domestic violence against her in Son’s presence and that Son appears to be the victim of emotional abuse by Husband.

Wife also contends that Husband had her institutionalized in France to coerce her into divorce and into agreeing to give Husband custody of Son.

Husband does not deny these allegations. Husband’s position appears to be that they are irrelevant.

The trial court disagrees … and appoints a therapist to evaluate Son’s maturity and wishes.

Read more in this Pueblo [CO] Chieftain article: Pueblo woman embroiled in international custody case and this Pueblo [CO] Chieftain article: Mother: Coerced to give up son.

A Florida mom describes seeking child support through the Florida Department of Revenue.

It isn’t pretty. It’s a bureaucratic process.

This mother had to refile her case three different times. Lost forms.

And wait two years for an order of support.

Along the way …

Numerous hang-ups.

Unnecessary trips to the support office.

Lack of responsiveness.

Poor automation.

Little monitoring.

Limited enforcement.

That mother calls for reform of the child support system.

Read more in this Orlando Sentinel article: Enough is enough: A call for child support reform.

South Carolina Mother and Father have child together.

Mother and Father break up.

Mother now lives with her new Boyfriend.

Father is apparently late with his child support payments.

Mother calls Father in the middle of the night, demanding support.

Then Mother puts Boyfriend on the phone and he also demands child support from Father.

Father drives to Mother and Boyfriend’s home in the middle of the night with support money.

Boyfriend then allegedly strikes Father in his back with a baseball bat, before denting Father’s truck as he leaves.

Boyfriend is arrested for assault and battery and malicious damage to personal property.

Read more in this [Greenville, SC] WYFF NBC TV 4 news article: Man Hit With Baseball Bat In Child Support Dispute.

There is nothing divorced spouses hate more than paying alimony (well, except perhaps paying their ex’s attorney’s fees).

In the current recession, it is said that the high unemployment rates are impacting working men disproportionately. In the overwhelming majority of cases, men are the ones who pay alimony (although women are increasingly getting their turn these days).

The weak economy coupled with what many perceive as unfair alimony laws have spurred significant anti-alimony activism and large numbers of downward modification proceedings.

Many argue that lifetime or permanent alimony is outmoded in an era when most women work except when their children are very young. Others argue that women still generally earn less than men and make more career sacrifices in most marriages.

Another bone of contention is the amount of alimony payments. In many states, judges have very wide discretion, resulting in unpredictability and inconsistency.

Permanent alimony in long term marriages is commonplace in Florida and there are no formulas or concrete guidelines for calculating the amount.

Read more in this Wall Street Journal Juggle column: As Women Earn More, Alimony Laws Lag Behind.

Mother and three year old Son live with Grandparents in Oregon.

Mother does not work or receive any child support or public assistance.

Grandparents provide all support for Mother and Son.

Not such an uncommon scenario.

Can Grandparents take the dependency tax exemption for both Mother and Son?

Grandparents may be able to claim the dependency tax exemption for both Mother and Son.

The Internal Revenue Code acknowledges the dependent status of either a Qualifying Child or a Qualifying Relative.

Son may qualify as either one, depending on the applicable facts.

Interestingly, a Qualifying Relative does not necessarily have to live with the taxpayer seeking to claim the exemption.

Read all the details in this Portland [OR] Oregonian column by an IRS consultant: Can we claim our daughter and her son who live with us?.

Parent is ordered to pay child support.

Parent doesn’t pay child support.

For a long time.

Other parent knows Parent has bank accounts and other assets.

Still, for the other parent, enforcing Parent’s child support obligations can be a slow, torturous, expensive and, sometimes, futile process.

In Missouri, though, things sometimes work a little differently.

Child support agency learns Parent has bank account.

Child support agency seizes back child support from Parent’s bank account.

How’s that?

Banks in the state and the child support agency there compare notes for the purpose of identifying deadbeat Parents who have bank accounts which could satisfy their child support obligations.

When a cross-reference (or match) is found, the child support agency has the power under state law to simply seize monies in a deadbeat Parent’s bank account and apply it to their child support arrearages.

The child support agency also compares notes with the federal government, in case Parents in-state deposit their money in banks with operations outside the state.

Missouri availed itself of this effective measure in approximately seven thousand cases (out of 300,000) in 2009.

Read more in this Kansas City [MO] Star article: Nixon seeks to tap bank accounts for overdue Missouri taxes.

Husband and Wife are divorcing.

In settlement discussions, Husband offers Wife her choice of:

• alimony in the amount of $50,000 per year for each of the next ten years only, plus half of the couple’s investment portfolio OR

• no alimony, but an additional $400,000 from “his half of” their investment portfolio.

Which is the better option for Wife?

Well, the answer to this question and the evaluation of many other settlement options, turns on the impact of taxes on each option.

In this particular example, a financial planner advises that Wife is better off waiving the alimony and taking the larger investment portfolio, because the alimony is taxable income to Wife but distributions from the investment portfolio are not.

Another important factor in some settlement options requires consideration of the time value of money.

Read more in this Portsmouth [NH] Herald article by a financial planner: Financially Speaking: The time value of money.

Under current Maryland law, couples reportedly have to live separately for a whole year in order to get an uncontested divorce. They also reportedly have to testify that they have not had sexual relations during that year.

A Maryland legislator believes that the requirement of having to live separately for a year makes getting a divorce more expensive than it has to be, than it should be.

And so he has proposed legislation that allows couples who live together, but abstain from having sex with each other for a year, to obtain a divorce. Less expensively.

The so-called proposed “Sex-Free Divorce” is not without critics. They point out that whether a couple has refrained from having intercourse for a year is not verifiable. And, arguably, this new divorce option may induce perjury and circumvention of the year-long statutory “waiting period”.

Still, the “no sex” divorce is not without precedent in the US.

Read more in this [Arlington, VA] WJLA News Channel 8 article: Maryland Lawmaker Proposes ‘Sex-Free’ Divorce.

Mother and Father have three year old Daughter. Mother and Father divorce.

Mother is from Ecuador. Divorce judgment permits Mother to take Daughter to visit Ecuador, but only upon prior notice to Father.

Father goes to Mother’s house in Michigan to pick Daughter up. And finds house empty.

Then Mother reportedly calls Father to tell him that they are in Ecuador.

In a letter, Mother notes that she feels “alienated” since their divorce. Mother also alleges that Father abuses drugs and that Daughter suffered burns several times while with Father.

Father maintains that child protective services has already investigated and cleared him.

Mother hires Michigan attorney, who contends that Mother is trying to protect Daughter.

Mother faces charges of parental kidnapping.

Father maintains that Mother is unstable and should not have Daughter.

Ecudador is a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Father is seeking Daughter’s return under the Hague Convention.

Read more in this WZZM ABC 13 news article: Greenville dad says his daughter was taken to Ecuador illegally.

Woman is evidently missing her significant other (Man).

Man is reportedly confined in a Florida corrections facility.

Woman drives to the facility and requests a conjugal visit with Man.

But Woman is late for her appointment.

And, in any event, this facility doesn’t permit conjugal visits.

Woman leaves the facility.

And then returns.

Woman appears to law enforcement officers to be “under the influence”.

Law enforcement officers administer a field sobriety test on Woman.

Woman fails the test.

Law enforcement officers administer a breathalyzer test on Woman.

Woman fails that test too.

Woman is arrested for driving under the influence (DUI) … and held in the very same facility where Man is.

Read more in this [West Palm Beach] WPBF ABC News 25 article: Police: Drunk Woman Sought Conjugal Visit With Inmate.

Valentine’s Day.

Flowers. Candy. Romance…

And domestic violence.

So suggests a UK police department.

The department has been stepping up its domestic abuse awareness and education program in anticipation of more incidents of domestic violence. On Valentine’s Day.

Posters and leaflets encourage victims to report acts of domestic abuse against them.

Trained officers stand ready to help victims from the time of their complaint through the trial of their abuser.

Last year, fifty-eight domestic violence incidents were reported in that county over the weekend of Valentine’s Day.

Read more in this Warrington [UK] Guardian article: Support for Valentine’s domestic violence victims.

Canadian Husband and Wife are married for over twenty years.

Husband and Wife break up.

Husband and Wife agree on the amount of alimony Husband should pay Wife.

Husband allegedly removes $50,000 from his retirement account over a period of time. And transfers his stock in his company to his son.

A year after the divorce is finalized, Husband seeks to modify his alimony obligation based on an alleged drop in his income.

The Ontario, Canadia trial court does not buy Husband’s story, concluding that Husband moved money so that it could not be used for alimony …

And the trial court goes on to sentence Husband to six months in jail for hiding assets from Wife and his noncompliance with the trial court’s order.

Husband declines to pay Wife what he owes her, even to avoid jail.

The Ontario appellate court affirms the trial court’s ruling.

And this is yet another shot fired in Canada which may be heard around the family law universe. (See my recent post Canadian Court Upholds Family Court Damages Award for One Spouse’s Purely Psychological Abuse of the Other Spouse for another recent, high impact ruling from Ontario, Canada.

Read more in this [Canadian] Globe and Mail article: Hiding assets from ex-spouse leads to jail.

Mother is in the military and is scheduled to be deployed overseas.

Mother arranges for Grandmother to care for Baby during Mother’s deployment.

Grandmother reneges … a few days before Mother’s deployment.

It appears Baby will have to go into foster care if Mother is to deploy as scheduled.

What’s a mother to do?

Mother misses her appointed flight overseas.

After Mother makes other arrangements for Baby’s care, Mother reports for duty.

And, for her trouble, Mother is arrested for dereliction of duty and other charges, and under threat of court-martial and imprisonment.

In the end, the military merely grants Mother an “other-than-honorable” discharge. Mother’s rank is lowered and she is stripped of some of her military benefits.

The military reportedly views Mother as trying to avoid her commitment and not availing herself of alternative options it, presumably, considers adequate for Baby.

In 2009, 10,000 single parents were able to be deployed overseas.

But hundreds, if not thousands, of other single mothers in the military have reportedly been administratively discharged over child care difficulties similar to Mother’s.

Read more in this New York Times article: Single Mother Is Spared Court-Martial.

Wife seeks divorce from Husband.

Husband allegedly attempts to beat Wife to death – with a metal flashlight. Husband also attempts to strangle Wife.

Husband also threatens to kill himself.

Couple has two young daughters.

Husband is arrested on charges of attempted murder and strangulation.

Oh, Husband was an attorney who served two former Presidents in important roles when they were in office. Husband was also the chief attorney in a large corporation.

And couple has millions of dollars in assets.

Wife has filed a civil lawsuit against Husband for $30 million, of which she seeks an award before final judgment, due to her injuries, which reportedly disable her from working.

Wife also fears dissipation of assets prior to Husband’s anticipated incarceration for what may be a very long time.

And Wife believes she requires bodyguards and other extraordinary security measures.

Read more in this [Danbury, CT] News-Times article: Wife of former White House lawyer sues for $30 million.

Lots of people about to embark on the path toward divorce are shocked to learn that their spouse may have some claim to part or all of certain assets that they initially acquired prior to their marriage – or inherited during their marriage.

These folks are even more shocked when they learn that, for the most part, it didn’t have to be that way …

If they had only spoken to an attorney a lot sooner, and titled and / or managed their assets a little more wisely.

A prenuptial agreement or postnuptial agreement is probably the least expensive and optimal vehicle to head off a divorce-triggered disaster before it happens.

But there are other methods as well, some fairly simple and inexpensive, and some, such as various types of trusts, more complex and, therefore, potentially more costly.

The applicable law governing these divorce and/or estate planning issues may vary considerably from state to state. For example, some states apply the law of equitable distribution upon divorce and others apply community property law. There may be many other differences as well.

Florida is an equitable distribution state and not a community property state, so that must be kept in mind in reading the following referenced article.

Nonetheless, any analysis that gets anyone started thinking about these issues is a step in the right direction. But it’s only the first step …

Read more in this Lake County [Lakeport, CA] News article: Estate planning: Separate property trusts for married persons.

American missionaries travel to Haiti to rescue thirty-three earthquake orphans by taking them, temporarily, to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic, and then back to families in the US prepared to take the children in.

According to their lawyer, the missionaries are said to be in possession of paperwork backing up their authorization to remove the children from Haiti. But it is unclear whether the authorization is proper, or whether the children had passports.

It turns out that twenty of the children may not actually be orphans and may have one or more living parents. And their parents allegedly claim that the missionaries were only supposed to educate the children in the Dominican Republic, not take them to the US.

Now the missionaries are detained, under arrest in Haiti, for kidnapping the children into the Dominican Republic and for criminal conspiracy.

Rumor suggests that the missionaries’ leader may have misled others in their group about their humanitarian mission and/or legal procedure. The leader is under investigation in the US in connection with other possible crimes. But she reportedly maintains that the children’s parents wanted to give their children a better life.

It does not appear that most of the missionaries were aware that it would be illegal to remove the childen from Haiti without proper legal authorization.

The Haitian court has three months to rule on this case. Kidnapping is punishable in Haiti by up to fifteen years’ imprisonment.

Read more in

• this China Central Television article: Missionaries charged with child abduction
• this Salem [OR] News article: Five of Ten Americans on Child Abduction Charges Taken to Port-au-Prince Court
• this UK Times article: US Baptists charged with Haiti child abduction face 15 years in jail
• this New York Times article: Haiti Charges Americans With Child Abduction

Eighty-two year old Husband owns used auto parts business.

Husband has stroke.

Wife gets legal guardianship of Husband.

Husband is admitted to nursing home.

Eighty year old Wife discharges Husband from nursing home.

Wife rejects in-home nursing care.

Husband and Wife live in back room of Husband’s business establishment…

In conditions unfit for human habitation.

Police find Husband, unattended, at his business establishment, malnourished, with numerous bedsores, afflicted by dementia, and wearing soiled clothing.

Wife is arrested for abusing Husband.

Wife represents herself at trial.

Wife maintains, in essence, that Husband is fine and should be allowed to return home.

Wife is convicted of abusing Husband.

Wife is ordered to relinquish legal guardianship of Husband to Wife’s and Husband’s daughter or the state.

Wife is denied unsupervised visits with Husband.

Wife is sentenced to eight years’ confinement in prison, suspended, with probation.

If Wife disobeys any of the court’s orders, Wife’s suspended sentence could be reinstated.

Husband is committed to a nursing home.

Wife reportedly states that Husband is unhappy in the nursing home and will be retaining his own counsel to procure his discharge.

Husband and Wife have at least $1 million in assets.

Read more in this Delaware News Journal article: Delaware crime: Husband abuse gets wife eight years’ probation.

In Japan, the wives control the pursestrings. Historically, Japanese wives skim some of the family’s earnings and roll it over into their own personal rainy day fund, called “bellybutton money”.

The weak economy in Japan over the last year and a half or so has taken its toll on many wives’ so-called bellybutton money.

Some wives have had to dip into their private stash to cover household expenses. Others have economized on spending for the family to maintain their rate of skimming.

Interestingly, according to a survey, the main reason that Japanese wives accumulate their bellybutton money is so they can afford to get a divorce around the age of fifty. It is reported that many Japanese wives are able to amass UK 1 million pounds.

In a similar vein, a recently passed Japanese law now entitles Japanese wives to half of their husbands’ pensions. As a result of the new law, many sixtysomething Japanese wives have consulted lawyers about divorce.

Read more in this UK Times article: Japan’s wives forced to indulge in navel gazing.

Ontario Canada’s highest court has fired a shot which may be heard around the family law universe.

Common law Husband threatens and harasses common law Wife … with the intention of intimidating her into backing off on her claims for property division and alimony.

For example, Husband threatens to send intimate pictures of Wife to her grandmother.

And Husband paints their common law marriage as merely the business relationship of landlord and tenant.

And Husband sends Wife scary letters, including one referring to a bullet in her head.

Husband also engages in frivolous, but nonetheless expensive, litigation intended to wear Wife down financially.

Sound familiar? If you’ve spent any time in American family courts, it should.

Based on Husband’s pattern of conduct, the Canadian appellate court refused to be used by Husband.

The Court declined to hear Husband’s appeal, concluding that it is an “abuse of process”.

Allowing to stand a $250,000 judgment awarding Wife damages for Husband’s intentional infliction of mental and emotional suffering and reimbursement of her legal fees and costs.

This was the first Canadian case in which the Court compensated a spouse for purely psychological abuse suffered in the absence of physical abuse.

Husband is also being prosecuted for his alleged threats and extortion.

Read more in this Ottawa Citizen article: Court refuses to be pawn in divorce case.

Maltese Mother and Scottish Father are divorced.

Mother has custody of their Daughter and they live in Malta.

Father lives in Scotland.

Last November, Mother and Daughter go to Scotland to visit relatives.

While they are there, Father requests a visitation day in Scotland. Mother agrees.

But Father refuses to return Daughter and accuses Mother of keeping Daughter in a dangerous and unsanitary environment.

Because of Father’s allegations, Scottish authorities detain Daughter in Scotland pending a hearing.

Daughter remains in Scotland for almost two months, attending a Scottish school, before any hearing.

In early January, the Scottish court finds that Husband has no rightful claim to custody of Daughter and rules that Daughter should be returned to Malta under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

Read more in this Times of Malta article: Girl returned to mother after ‘nightmare’.

Everyone knows some parent (or grandparent) of an adult child who just doesn’t like their child’s chosen spouse.

The reasons vary – and sometimes there really is no actual reason.

In most instances, the parent (or grandparent) has no choice but to “get over it”.

But that doesn’t necessarily stop them from trying to interfere or control – even from the grave.

And so it is with a wealthy Israeli Grandmother dissatisfied with her Grandson’s choice of Wife.

Both Mother and Grandmother have had no relationship with Grandson since his marriage ten years ago.

In her will, the Grandmother leaves her fortune to Grandson and her other grandson, but Grandson can’t collect his inheritance … until he divorces Wife (or Wife dies).

(There are a couple of stated exceptions, but they apparently don’t apply here.)

Now Grandson intends to challenge the will.

Similar provisions in wills have been struck down in some US states on the grounds that it is against public policy to instigate divorce.

Read more in this Monsters and Critics / WOTR Limited article: Till death – or money – do us part: Israeli man’s marriage dilemma.

UK Husband owns roughly 300 acre farm.

Husband and Wife have stormy marriage.

Wife tells friends that Husband is violent with her.

Husband also reportedly threatens Wife

Wife e-mails one friend that Husband claims to have associates “who could get rid of bodies”.

Husband reportedly has affair.

Wife discusses divorce (in 2007).

Husband offers Wife a settlement of UK 600,000 pounds.

Wife, however, rejects that offer, holding out for UK 800,000 pounds.

Shortly after, Wife goes missing, never to be seen or heard from again, dead or alive.

Husband allegedly does not report Wife as missing for five whole days.

Husband is charged with murder.

Husband’s guilt or innocence is now up to the jury.

Read more in

• this Gloucestershire [UK] Media article: UPDATE: Jury out in Prout murder trial
• and this UK Sun article: Farmer ‘killed wife over £800k
• this UK Mirror article: Man ‘killed his ex over £800,000 divorce’

Attorney-Husband has a lucrative class-action personal injury litigation practice.

Husband and Wife have millions of dollars in assets.

Husband has been working on a particular case for the last several years of Husband’s marriage to Wife.

Wife files for divorce from Attorney-Husband.

After Wife files for divorce, but before final judgment, Husband receives a multi-million dollar attorney’s fee in the above class action lawsuit.

The multi-million dollar question: does Husband get to keep his entire fee? Or does Wife get a share of it?

The Tennessee trial court rules that the attorney’s fee is marital property of both Husband and Wife … and awards forty (40%) percent of the fee to Wife.

On appeal, the Supreme Court of Tennessee affirms the trial court’s classification of the attorney’s fee as marital property and upholds the trial court’s division of the fee.

(Note: different states define marital property differently, and Florida’s statutory definition differs from Tennessee’s.)

Read more in this Business Insider Law Review article: Tennesee Class-Action Lawyer Must Pay $6.8 Million Of Post-Divorce Payday and this ABA Journal Law News Now article: Tenn. High Court’s Divorce Ruling Costs Class Action Lawyer $6.8M.

Husband is celebrated surgeon and professor in Germany.

Then he reportedly pleads guilty to intentionally harming patients and then falsifying medical records.

He is fined approximately $37,000, but is not sentenced to jail.

He does however lose his position and standing.

Husband reportedly receives approximately $3 million in severance pay.

Husband and Wife leave Germany to immigrate to Canada.

Several years later, their marriage breaks down, and they divorce in 2008.

Canadian divorce court orders Husband to pay Wife child support and alimony, and to turn over some assets to Wife.

Husband pleads guilty to two charges of driving while impaired.

Husband is ordered to pay a nominal fine for each charge and his driving privileges are revoked for two years.

But Husband is not sentenced to jail.

Husband seeks to modify the final judgment in his divorce, arguing that his fortunes have reversed … and that Wife has not taken steps to become self-supporting.

Wife responds by noting that Husband has not produced adequate proof of his supposed worsened financial condition, inadequate documentation of his financial picture at all.

Husband reportedly owns real estate … in Germany and Canada … and the US and Switzerland. He reportedly also owns a stake in a Canadian air carrier.

The court has not yet ruled in Husband’s case, but …

Read more in this Kamloops [Canada] Daily News article: Disgraced German doctor wants to pay ex less.