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In Re Marriage of Tharp (Cal. Ct. App. - Oct. 1, 2010)

By Shaun Martin

Thinking about doing divorce work?  It can surely have its benefits.  But read this one to recognize how bad things can become.

No one comes out looking clean in this one.  At least to me.  Not the husband.  Not the wife.  Not the lawyers.  Not the judge.  No one.

Most of the Court of Appeal's opinion focuses on the misconduct of the trial court and the husband.  That's right, I think, as far as it goes.  But I might have balanced it out a tiny bit more.  The wife was far from perfect as well.

The harm, of course, was not only to the judiciary and to the massive waste of attorney's fees.  The kids clearly are impacted by this whole thing.  In ways that are really bad.

So a depressing story.

P.S. - The husband's allegedly a recovering alcoholic who's begun drinking again, and who indisputably is pretty wealthy -- he's the heir to a family business that pays a ton of his expenses (country club memberships, attorney's fees, etc.) in addition to providing him with a job.  A job that allows him to sleep until noon most days and to find  a lot of time to spend with his girlfriend, who the family hired as a babysitter when she was 16 and who allegedly now hangs out on the bed with the husband wearing nothing but a towel.  At least in front of the kids.  I'm not vouching for the accuracy of any of this, of course.  But I mention it only because, if true, it's one way to live, I guess.

Full post as published by California Appellate Report on October 01, 2010 (boomark / email).