To start with, in this case I am not going to get right into the players or the story; I'm just going to go straight to the money issue. Because money has to be one of the primary themes of the case.
As it turns out, this is the story of a fairly non traditional couple who kind of break the mold in many ways. However, in the way they divorced they didn't break the mold; instead, they walked down the path of high conflict divorce which we are all so familiar with.
They walked it to the point where Judge Bishop stated, "This case is a war of wills cloaked in a custody dispute. The battle consumed eleven trial days, and the parties have incurred approximately three hundred and seventeen ($317,000) thousand dollars of legal fees and attendant litigation costs."
Ok, I am jumping right to the end of this case where there is a more detailed discussion of the fees. It looks as though plaintiff (father) was represented by two attorney's serving as co-counsel at trial which added up to $193,302, the Defendant's (mother) attorney cost $92,516, and then the counsel for the minor child submitted a bill for around $32,000 which does add up to the $317,000 the judge was talking about regarding legal fees.
Ok, I love this kind of addition and subtraction. I guess Judge Bishop was willing to be open about the legal fees but he was not willing to itemize the so called attendant litigations costs, over and above the base $317,000.
This consisted of the costs for the custody evaluation by Dr. James C. Black, which was probably around an additional ten thousand or more, then the cost for the psychological evaluations, another five thousand or more, then the cost for the substance abuse evaluator and the neurologist, several thousand more, and then over and above that, according to Judge Bishop, "Each of these medical and mental health professionals provided a report to the court. Several of them testified as well."
Ok, then, the cost of the expert testimony alone was extremely expensive, no doubt. That's four expert witnesses, and who knows how many days of testimony they had to come in for. Plus, there must have been some fun depositions, don't you think! Depositions of the expert witnesses, and also depositions of the parties! Just one great big fun time!
So, what do you say, guys, with legal fees, attendant court costs, costs of transcripts, costs of travel for Mrs. Bauer, what do we have--around maybe $400,000 as a reasonable estimate for the entire divorce. Wow! Lots of people made a killing here!
Judge Bishop seems to be pretty amazed by all this money going around, but I'm sure you the reader and I am not that surprised. Seriously, I must have spent the same amount on my divorce and others I've spoken to have easily gone to a million or more.
I can recall my first attorney when he saw an investment account statement of some stock which I was using to pay his fees; he sat there with the statement in his hands this gloating look on his face like, yes, this will all be mine, and it was within a few short months. The greed I saw play itself out in my divorce was extraordinary.
Thousands and thousands of dollars, a small fortune, gone, all gone. My future, my children's future, all in the hands of attorneys. And the judge in this case actually takes the time to question that? I am amazed. Where has he been as a judge in Connecticut? In la la land?
I've been reading a book called "Aftertime" by Sophie Littlefield about a post apocalyptic world where Zombies roam the streets looking for living people to eat. This is how the author describes the bloodlust of these zombies,
"The maniacal frenzy of their hunger could not be tempered by any obstacle. They'd run across glass, across hot coals, across this terrible scorched earth that was the end of the world if it meant fresh, uninfected flesh. They were body eaters, after all, and that was all they lived for."
If you replace the word "flesh" with money, the word "body eaters" with money suckers, you'd have most lawyers, that's for sure. Maniacal, insane, crazy for profit, no matter how much damage they do, no matter how many lives they destroy, men, women, children, it's all the same to them, to lawyers.
More in Part II....
As it turns out, this is the story of a fairly non traditional couple who kind of break the mold in many ways. However, in the way they divorced they didn't break the mold; instead, they walked down the path of high conflict divorce which we are all so familiar with.
They walked it to the point where Judge Bishop stated, "This case is a war of wills cloaked in a custody dispute. The battle consumed eleven trial days, and the parties have incurred approximately three hundred and seventeen ($317,000) thousand dollars of legal fees and attendant litigation costs."
Ok, I am jumping right to the end of this case where there is a more detailed discussion of the fees. It looks as though plaintiff (father) was represented by two attorney's serving as co-counsel at trial which added up to $193,302, the Defendant's (mother) attorney cost $92,516, and then the counsel for the minor child submitted a bill for around $32,000 which does add up to the $317,000 the judge was talking about regarding legal fees.
Ok, I love this kind of addition and subtraction. I guess Judge Bishop was willing to be open about the legal fees but he was not willing to itemize the so called attendant litigations costs, over and above the base $317,000.
This consisted of the costs for the custody evaluation by Dr. James C. Black, which was probably around an additional ten thousand or more, then the cost for the psychological evaluations, another five thousand or more, then the cost for the substance abuse evaluator and the neurologist, several thousand more, and then over and above that, according to Judge Bishop, "Each of these medical and mental health professionals provided a report to the court. Several of them testified as well."
Ok, then, the cost of the expert testimony alone was extremely expensive, no doubt. That's four expert witnesses, and who knows how many days of testimony they had to come in for. Plus, there must have been some fun depositions, don't you think! Depositions of the expert witnesses, and also depositions of the parties! Just one great big fun time!
So, what do you say, guys, with legal fees, attendant court costs, costs of transcripts, costs of travel for Mrs. Bauer, what do we have--around maybe $400,000 as a reasonable estimate for the entire divorce. Wow! Lots of people made a killing here!
Judge Bishop seems to be pretty amazed by all this money going around, but I'm sure you the reader and I am not that surprised. Seriously, I must have spent the same amount on my divorce and others I've spoken to have easily gone to a million or more.
I can recall my first attorney when he saw an investment account statement of some stock which I was using to pay his fees; he sat there with the statement in his hands this gloating look on his face like, yes, this will all be mine, and it was within a few short months. The greed I saw play itself out in my divorce was extraordinary.
Thousands and thousands of dollars, a small fortune, gone, all gone. My future, my children's future, all in the hands of attorneys. And the judge in this case actually takes the time to question that? I am amazed. Where has he been as a judge in Connecticut? In la la land?
I've been reading a book called "Aftertime" by Sophie Littlefield about a post apocalyptic world where Zombies roam the streets looking for living people to eat. This is how the author describes the bloodlust of these zombies,
"The maniacal frenzy of their hunger could not be tempered by any obstacle. They'd run across glass, across hot coals, across this terrible scorched earth that was the end of the world if it meant fresh, uninfected flesh. They were body eaters, after all, and that was all they lived for."
If you replace the word "flesh" with money, the word "body eaters" with money suckers, you'd have most lawyers, that's for sure. Maniacal, insane, crazy for profit, no matter how much damage they do, no matter how many lives they destroy, men, women, children, it's all the same to them, to lawyers.
More in Part II....
Exceptions are cases in which the lawyer wants out real fast. they will cut their losses and walk away real fast then pretend they're doing you a favor. but the gal will still go after you.
ReplyDeleteOh, the GAL! The GAL makes the best money ever!
ReplyDelete