Divorce — Does it Matter Who Files First?
Posted: March 27, 2013 Filed under: Alimony, Discovery, DIY or Pro Se Litigation, Family law, Grounds for Divorce, prenuptial / premarital agreements, Privacy Issues in Divorce, Property Rights, Uncategorized | Tags: disqualification, dissolution of marriage, divorce lawyer, divorce strategy, filing for divorce, groton lawyer, hiding assets, lawyer shopping, mystic lawyer, plaintiff, stonington lawyer, when to see a lawyer Leave a commentA new article on Forbes.com by Attorney Jeff Landers gives a nice overview of the reasons to gear up early once you sense that divorce may be one outcome of your marital problems.
While Jeff seems to suggest that divorce dirty tricks are the exclusive province of men, in our experience the risks and considerations he outlines in this otherwise informative article apply to both genders.
Landers points out that consulting an attorney early can not only provide you with a crucial checklist for contingency planning, but can also assure that your spouse won’t beat you to the punch by consulting several of the best area lawyers simply to disqualify them from representing you. He also notes that starting the action assures that if the matter goes to trial down the road, you will be the one, as the plaintiff, to present your case first.
Our clients in Connecticut should also know that by filing for divorce certain Automatic Orders take effect the moment the divorce papers are served on their spouse. These orders prevent the other party from doing a number of things including moving out-of-state with children, hiding assets, taking sole ownership of joint assets, changing locks on the marital residence, changing beneficiaries on existing insurance policies and more. The full text and a summary of the Automatic Orders can be found here on the Connecticut Judicial Website.
Bottom line? While you’re hoping for the best and working on your marriage it also makes sense to prepare well for the worst
TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES IN DIVORCE COURT – HOW NOT TO COMPOUND MISTAKES MADE DURING MARRIAGE
Posted: July 22, 2012 Filed under: Alimony, Discovery, DIY or Pro Se Litigation, Family law, prenuptial / premarital agreements, Privacy Issues in Divorce, Uncategorized | Tags: alimony, cary brody, cheating, Connecticut Appellate Court, connecticut lawyer, credibility appeal, divorce, extramarital affair, gary cohen, hedge fund, lois lawrence, mistakes, old mystic lawyer, patricial brody, prenuptial agreement, property settlement, stephen ecker, stonington lawyer 3 Comments
A recent decision of the Connecticut Appellate Court in the case of Felicia Pierot Brody vs. Cary Brody illustrates what can happen when the focus of a divorce case shifts from the issues in the marriage to the credibility, or lack thereof, of one of the parties to the case. In the Brody case, one thing that happened was that a lot of personal information became public – e.g., the husband’s awkward excuse for stashing condoms in his travel bag. Another consequence: Brody was ordered to pay $2.5 million in lump sum alimony even though his prenuptial agreement was meant to prevent that and even though the court was unable to ascertain his income. The trial took place in 2010. Recently the Appellate Court has ruled against Brody on all six issues he raised in his appeal.
For all most of us know, Mr. Brody might have told the truth from start to finish. However, the judge found him not to be credible which, as the finder of fact in a civil case, she was privileged to do.
Any judge will tell you that the best way to appear to be truthful is simply to tell the truth. Still, any divorce lawyer who’s practiced as long as I have, has encountered more than one client who is shocked to learn that their lawyer expects them to be honest.
What kind of lawyer wouldn’t help you hide your assets, understate your income or cover up your extramarital affairs? The answer: any good one. Yet, despite our best efforts, there are plenty of folks who remain unconvinced that honesty is the best policy even when the truth isn’t pretty.
The fact is, there isn’t much that happens in a marriage that the judge hasn’t heard before. Also, there can be two very different sides to every story even when the story is told by honest people. Your secret spending or infidelity might have led to enormous drama in your household, but in divorce court, might barely cause a ripple. Unless, that is, you deny the deed and the judge isn’t buying it.
Brody was not a divorce between members of the 99% although the basic issues were fairly universal. There was an issue of irresponsible spending — in this case buying one too many Ferrari automobiles , a wine cellar, and an airplane. There was an issue of suspected infidelity with no proof other than a few unused condoms. There was a business purportedly in decline — in this case the Defendant’s hedge fund. There were some “he-said-she-said” claims of verbal abuse. All matters divorce judges deal with day in and day out.
No case in Connecticut goes to trial without first going through at least one formal attempt at settlement usually with the assistance of a judge or court-appointed Special Master. Most cases settle before trial. Of the small percentage that do not, only a handful are appealed and those few find little success in overturning the decision of the trial judge.
In this case, the Defendant raised a number of issues that might have served him well during settlement negotiations. His business really had been embroiled in litigation with the SEC, for example, and the prenuptial agreement arguably offered him protection from a lump sum alimony award that would have to be funded by liquidating personal assets.
At trial, however, the judge found him not to be a credible witness. For one thing, he had admitted testifying falsely under oath in an earlier divorce proceeding that his wife had commenced but later dropped. Back then he had denied removing his wife’s jewelery from a safe, but had later come clean. Added to that was the finding that the Defendant had stonewalled during the discovery phase of the trial pretending that certain documents sought by the Plaintiff didn’t exist. With those two strikes against him, the case was pretty much over. The Plaintiff, whose personal net worth at the time of the marriage had been 29 million, and whose dividend income from her separate property was approximately $100,000 annually was awarded alimony and, tacitly, the designation of honest litigant.
RECENT CONNECTICUT DECISION RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT THE TRUE MEANING OF PATERNITY
Posted: February 4, 2012 Filed under: Child Support, Family law, Paternity Issues, Privacy Issues in Divorce | Tags: biological father, Clarence Jones, Connecticut Surpreme Court, DNA evidence, equitable estoppel, Eric Fischer, fischer, Paternity, Richard zollino 2 Comments
The Connecticut Supreme Court recently overturned a lower court ruling that prevented a Connecticut man, Eric Fischer, from seeking money damages against the biological father of a child Fischer had raised believing her to be his own. Back in 2008 , shortly after Fischer and the girl’s mother divorced, a lower court ruled that allowing a suit for damages against the proven biological father would potentially cause emotional trauma to the child, then in her mid-teens. The decision was based on the legal principle of equitable estoppel.
In layman’s terms, and in the context of this case, this means that the court thought it would be unfair for Mr. Fischer to deny –truthfully or not– that he was the father of a child he had treated as his daughter and who had known him as her father.
Now, the State’s high court has ruled that the lawsuit against the biological father may proceed. Through it, Fischer seeks to recover nearly $200,000 in child-rearing costs from the biological father, Richard Zollino –a former business partner of the child’s mother.
The young woman at the heart of the dispute is now 19 years old — legally an adult — and her name was released as part of the Court’s decision. Not surprisingly, the case has received attention from the press so whether or not the family secret had been shared with the young woman, she will now need to grapple with how to deal with a wider public discussion of her parentage and, more importantly, of Mr. Fischer’s priorities.
The dollars involved are substantial and there is certainly enough culpability to spread around among the adults, however that doesn’t make the case a simple one.
