Money is No Object for Divorcing U.K. Couple
Over the years I have often posted about cases in which a Canadian court invites warring former spouses to reflect on the sheer amount of money they are spending on lawyers and court costs, in waging prolonged battles with each other. There are several of these but here’s just one. All too frequently, the costs of repeatedly going to court – often to dispute relatively trifling legal points – can quickly outstrip the monetary value of what’s being fought over, not to mention the benefit of the overall exercise.
This dubious litigation strategy is certainly not confined to Canadian family law litigants. As reported in a recent article in the U.K. newspaper known as The Guardian, a separated wealthy British couple have already spent over £2 million (about CDN $3.5 million) slugging it out both in and out of court, all to fight over their £6.6m in family assets (about CDN$11.5 million). This despite the fact that they are only the pre-trial stage of the proceedings, with the trial yet to come.
According to one judge, the two have “completely lost touch with reality,” and noted that the trial itself will cost at least another £200,000 (or CDN$350,000) in lawyers’ fees.
The article reports that the former couple, who ran a company that supplies luxury towels and bathrobes to high-end hotels and spas, had been so single-minded embroiled in their conflict that they ran the risk that there would be no money left for either of them at the end. At least one judge had admonished them along the way, advising that their litigation campaign was a “scandalous waste of court time.”
