Judge criticises warring couple [lawyers] for squandering £1.7 million on bitter divorce battle

A couple who squandered £1.7 million during a bitter divorce and custody battle were criticised by a judge driving their marriage "full tilt onto the rocks."

Judge Clive Million slammed Anna-Marie Harvey Kavanagh, 47, and her ex-husband Giles Kavanagh, 52, who - despite both being practicing solicitors - have "spent almost all their assets in litigation".

The couple were criticised for "wrecking the ship of their marriage, then turning their attention to the lifeboats."

"The ship of marriage may founder, but this couple have driven theirs full tilt onto the rocks," he said.

The couple who lived in a £3.2m seven-bedroom matrimonial home set in half an acre of Surrey countryside until they split in 2008 after ten years of marriage, were left with just over £90,000 between them, after years of acrimonious scrapping over money and their three children.

Despite Mr Kavanagh earning over £485,000 a year as a partner in a law firm specialising in aerospace litigation and insurance, he was left with "net debts" after the matrimonial home was ordered to be sold and split between the couple.

Mrs Kavanagh was awarded two thirds of the funds raised by the sale of Haldon Lodge, in Coombe Wood Road, Kingston upon Thames, and her husband a third by a judge in June 2008.

But the proceeds of the multi-million pound sale were so depleted by a "debt of costs", to the tune of almost £900,000, and other factors that Mrs Kavanagh received just £94,500 whilst Mr Kavanagh was left in negative territory after paying his debts.

And on this side of the pond.....

Lawyer linked to 'dirty DUIs' arrested "A divorce attorney linked to the Contra Costa County "dirty DUI" scandal hired a private investigator to illegally hide listening devices inside the cars of her clients' estranged husbands, authorities said Tuesday.

.....In the first referral, Butler said he was "contracted" by Nolan to conduct a July 2007 sting on Declan Woods, 46, a construction worker in Clayton who was in the midst of divorcing one of Nolan's clients.

Butler said he had been paid $1,500 - although he did not make it clear if he was paid by Nolan or Woods' ex-wife - to hire two female decoys to approach Woods and drink with him at his local bar. Butler told investigators he paid the females $25 an hour with a four-hour minimum for their work.

After the decoys suggested Woods follow them home to Walnut Creek for more partying, Butler called Clayton police dispatch and gave a description of Woods' truck, which resulted in Woods' arrest for driving under the influence.

Butler said he had videotaped Woods being handcuffed and put into a squad car, and that Nolan was "thrilled" with the visual evidence......................"

They did not squander 1.7 billion pounds, they merely used it in creating jobs for those poor, unfortunate SCUMBAG LAWYERS who like to keep a case riled up and strung out as loooooong as possible.

“Who cares who wins the case, as long as there are billable hours!”

[thus endeth my totally bigoted statement about lawyers]

“Just because you are bigoted doesn’t necessarily mean you are wrong.”

;-)

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