More often than not, divorces get messy and time in court is inevitable. Whether it’s property, custody, or insignificant items, people will fight to be the one who comes out on top. Divorce lawyers reveal some of their messiest cases and the awful things spouses did to sabotage each other. This content has been edited for clarity.
Conspiracy Theory
“I represented a guy who was on his second marriage. His first wife passed away from cancer and he and his kids were obviously devastated. My client was a pretty sensitive guy with a big heart. His second wife could be very charming, which was why he fell for her, but it was all a facade. Long story about a lengthy divorce short, my client met a very kind and affectionate woman during his case. They really hit it off and were basically engaged (even though his divorce was far from over). The fiancée started having health problems and was diagnosed with a form of terminal cancer.
Somehow, the second wife found out about this and tried to use the cancer diagnosis against my client in court. She developed this crazy theory that my client had killed his first wife by giving her cancer and that he was doing the same thing to his ‘fiancée.’ The second wife’s attorney, who was quite good, refused to be a party to it.
The attorney never addressed the argument in court and didn’t ask the second wife any questions about it during testimony. Rather, the attorney informed the judge that the second wife wished to address the court directly about an issue. The judge allowed her to do so (in a highly irregular move). The second wife told her crazy conspiracy theory to the judge, adding that she was certain my client had tried to give her cancer at some point as well.
I wish I had an artist’s rendering of the scene, capturing the second wife’s crazy eyes, her attorney’s look of shame/embarrassment, the judge’s look of confusion/ennui, and my look of awe-inspired disgust.”
Half The House
“I had a client who had separated from his wife but didn’t want to divorce to maintain a variety of benefits (UK). They still lived in the same house they owned together, but they each had a floor. Despite almost never seeing each other, their relationship only got worse.
Four years after the separation, the husband came to us (Estate Planners) looking to secure his legacy for his beneficiaries. We went through a lengthy process with him as he had a sizeable estate and tax advice was necessary. During the process, he focused very keenly on one aspect of the planning known as a Severance of Tenancy (SEV). This is essentially changing the property title to say each party owns a specific share i.e. 50 percent for him and 50 percent for her. It’s something we use if clients want assets to go to different people, but we weren’t doing joint planning, so it seemed strange.
Months later, the planning is completed including the SEV, which the wife knowingly signed. We got an angry call from her one day and I was the sorry soul that answered.
‘He did it!’ she screamed.
I was confused and asked her to clarify.
‘He literally severed it!’ now even more irate.
It turned out he waited until she was away and concreted the house stairs so it was unusable and somehow drilled several holes in the house, enough to physically push the top and bottom halves separate. Her only way into the ‘upstairs’ was a ladder he’d left by a window with a note.”
I Was Framed
“It’s going to be hard for me to do this justice because there was so much going on. I had a case where my client (the husband) was a reformed felon. During the divorce, he was driving home from work one night and got pulled over. The police asked to search his vehicle and he consented because he had no reason not to. They found a pump action and narcotic paraphernalia in the car. He was prohibited from possessing a weapon, obviously.
They cuffed him and took him to the station. He was protesting throughout that his wife framed him. Against all odds, the cops ended up believing him and cut him loose. Uncharacteristically, the cops were also sharing information with us about their investigation into the attempted framing. The wife’s idiot boyfriend bought the weapon he planted in the car at a pawn shop and didn’t file the serial number.
The cops got surveillance footage of him at the pawnshop. The wife’s planned alibi was that she was in Texas with said boyfriend. The idiots stayed at a casino in the town where the framing occurred, of all places. There are more cameras in a casino than anywhere. They also had other solid evidence and the cops shared all of it with us.
We had a temporary matters hearing coming up and the wife had not been charged yet. I was able to blindside her during the temporary hearing with all this evidence.
At one point, the judge turned and looked at her and said ‘You really expect me to believe you had nothing to do with this?’
Long story short, the wife and her boyfriend ended up pleading guilty to false reporting and my client got the kids.”
House Key
“I was acting for the wife in a divorce and we were trying to negotiate the settlement of their midsized property pool split. The husband was still living in the marital home. She was proving a difficult client and I wasn’t looking forward to representing her, to be honest.
One day, I got an email from her. She had decided to let herself into the marital home while he was at work with the keys she still had and went through the husband’s desk. She read all the privileged legal correspondence between the husband and his lawyer regarding the relative strengths/weaknesses of his case. She took photos of all said correspondence and sent them to me.
As soon as I realized what I was reading, I immediately closed the email. Soon after, she called me very triumphant and determined to change her whole strategy to take advantage of this newly ill-gotten information.
She was most put out when I informed her that what she had done was not only highly illegal, but I was going to have to withdraw as her representative AND I had an ethical obligation to inform the other side of the breach of confidence. She could not get her head around the fact that not only was what she did legally wrong, but it was also extremely messed up morally.”
Secret Camera
“My husband is a divorce lawyer. He was second chair in an ugly divorce. I lived in a mommy state, so for a dad to win was rare. My husband’s firm represented the dad and they won custody on a temporary basis
The mom flipped out. She took everything. The meat in the freezer, every piece of furniture, and even the plants out of the front yard. She painted over everything the kids had done on the walls in the basement — they had put their handprints over everything. The dad and kids came back to a house that was less than empty.
This all may have been let go if she hadn’t installed a camera in the fire alarm. She knew things she shouldn’t know. The judge destroyed her. In the long run, she only hurt herself. She hasn’t had custody in nine years. She’s had a period of at least a year with supervised visitation. The kids are now to the point where they know what’s up, but she won’t stop. She’s declared bankruptcy from attorney fees and now represents herself. I imagine we’re in for another decade of this nonsense.”
Foul Play
“My brother-in-law is a lawyer and this is one of the cases he had recently.
A man and his wife broke up because the woman was having an affair and he ended up filing for divorce. The ex-wife was not pleased and tried to go for everything. The problem came when she tried to get the dog and won.
It was a truly sad thing because the dog has been with the man for over 10 years at that point. No doubt the dog was old, but it was relatively healthy and well-loved by the man. The dog was a family pet purchased by his father who unfortunately passed away, so the man took over the responsibility of the dog and developed a deep bond with it.
The woman on the other hand didn’t care for the dog that much, she simply tolerated it. She would never walk it, feed it, or groom it. She simply fought for the dog because she knew it would hurt him. And it did. He was devastated and bawling his eyes out while talking to my brother-in-law asking what to do.
My brother-in-law heard from the man that his ex told him when she got the dog, she was going to take it to a vet to euthanize it. Well, she did and sent him the collar back with a picture of the pet at the vet’s office.
The next time my brother-in-law heard from the man (recently), he asked my brother-in-law if he knew a criminal defense lawyer who was capable and affordable. Turns out that after she killed the dog to spite him, out of rage he tracked his ex-wife down, tortured, then killed her over a span of two days.”
Deal!
“There was a super wealthy guy who was a top executive at a Fortune 500 company who was getting a divorce and it was rather nasty. This guy was set for life. He had a bunch of stock, houses, and assets in so many places. The ex-wife wanted everything she could possibly get.
The husband came up with an idea that if she let him keep everything, he would give her half of his paycheck for the rest of his life. She quickly agreed because his checks were huge and this also included any bonuses which were in the millions.
As soon as the paperwork was finalized, he quit his job and started to work part-time at a sporting goods store. He still had all of his assets so he would drive to work in a super expensive car. One day, another employee asked how he could possibly afford that car. The guy said he was set for life and didn’t even need to work at all, but every Friday when he got his paycheck, it made everything worth it knowing his ex-wife would only be getting about 150 dollars per check.”
Stolen Dog
“I was contacted by a woman after her judgment was final. She and her ex had a pretty short marriage of maybe 7-8 years. In the divorce, she was awarded four years of spousal support at a modest 400 dollars per month. They also had a dog. Their divorce said the wife would have ‘primary custody’ of the dog but the husband could request time whenever he wanted. The wife then promptly moved across the country to be with her family.
In the ensuing several years, the husband never once requested time with the dog. He paid his alimony, and the two went on peacefully hating each other like most divorced couples. Fast forward to the final few months of his spousal support obligation, the husband got into his feels and told the wife he was not going to pay the final few months of spousal support. His basis was the wife was dating, and because she had a boyfriend, he shouldn’t have to pay his court-ordered spousal support. She told him that’s not how any of it worked and said he still had to pay.
A few weeks later, the husband requests a visitation with the dog. It was the first time in years so the wife was surprised but hey, that was his right. They made plans to meet at an airport (where the husband worked) where he could pick up the dog and take her home for a few weeks. The day after the exchange, the husband texts my client and says that if she does not repay her the ~20k in spousal support, she will never see the dog again.
She flipped out and told him she needed the dog back at the end of his three weeks, and if he doesn’t, she will go to court. The day before the scheduled exchange, the husband told the wife that he can’t make it as he was in Mexico and the dog ran away.
Long story short, we went to court, and the husband and his lawyer had smug grins thinking they had done nothing wrong. After the facts were laid out, the husband got convicted of contempt of court and sentenced to five days in jail. After he left, both the court clerk and court reporter told me they had never seen such a clearly guilty person.
In the end, the wife never did get her poor dog back. The prevailing theory is that he gave the dog to a friend or something and couldn’t ask for it back.”
Time Travel
“My represented the husband of a divorce. He was an aging man and his hobby was working on, restoring, and preserving his stainless steel DMC DeLorean, which was in tip-top shape in a barn on his property. That thing gleamed so much it was like a UFO. He bought it originally when it was released, used it for years, let his son use it for years, and restored it after the son didn’t take care of it.
The wife demanded the car be awarded to her so it could be sold as a collectible and/or used to fund various philanthropic interests she had. The mediator saw that the intended division of property was more than ample for the wife, definitely favored her, and understood what was going on from the statements made by both. He spent too much time with the DeLorean and now that the marriage was over, it would teach him a lesson if he didn’t have it anymore. He needed a ‘real life’ she claimed.
When that didn’t work, she tried to argue she wanted to borrow the car every now and then ‘for special events.’ The husband said she’d simply have an accident in order to torment him. The mediator helped hammer home a division of assets and the wife didn’t get the DMC DeLorean. However, the husband said he would consider an appropriate way to ‘share the car.’
When you settle these types of cases, the judge and mediator aren’t typing the stuff up. It’s the attorneys who submit the final agreements and exhibits to be signed by the judge or mediator, with a ‘reviewed and approved’ countersignature by both attorneys.
Both attorneys reviewed and approved the prepared Marital Settlement Agreement and submitted it. It came back as part of the divorce judgment, and, there had been a single section added in the column for the wife.
The husband got the car, but the wife could borrow it only when she was able to produce her own fully functioning “Flux Capacitor” to operate the car for bonafide time travel, and only if she was accompanied ‘by a Physician.’ If she could prove that her working Flux Capacitor was able to take the car back in time, then she’d earned the right to borrow it.
They kept it in.”
Jail Time
“A man in his 60s came in and told me he wanted a divorce from his wife of about the same age. They had been physically separated for quite some time, but not legally separated and nothing had been filed. It turned out his wife had been living with someone who was moderately well off for a couple of years and had gotten sick. She had been angling to get included in his will.
I’m fairly certain it was a physical relationship but she definitely cooked and cleaned. Apparently, she never managed it but tried to probate a handwritten document that was decidedly NOT in the dead guy’s handwriting. She got shut down quickly. When she tried to come ‘home,’ my client was having none of it.
Hence why the guy came to our office. The divorce hearing was pretty straightforward except for the time she showed up to court whacked out of her mind on what had to have been opioids. She about fell on the floor a couple of times and a ziplock bag of pills fell out of her jacket. The bailiff confiscated that and she was charged later with public intoxication.
She wound up with no alimony. When she left before, she took her husband’s dog and laptop. Well in the final decree, my client got both. She was hysterical about the dog but finally gave the dog up after giving my client the runaround a few times.
However, the laptop was far more interesting. She refused to give it up. Period. So I motioned for civil contempt. She claimed to the chancellor (judge) it was stolen and she had asked her church for a collection to be taken to replace it. Her credibility was already at level zero, so the chancellor held her in contempt. The bailiff arrested her and she went to jail.
I kept seeing her car parked in the parking lot for the next three weeks. Finally, she admitted where the laptop was and my client got it back, so she was released. It was the strangest divorce I’ve ever been involved in, but definitely not the only strange divorce.”
Lies Lies Lies
“My craziest case was husband and wife legally separated in NY back in 2004. The wife moved to CA after the legal separation. There were varying stories as to why, but the husband moved to CA as well about two years later. Again, for various reasons, the husband and wife moved in together in CA. The wife claimed they rekindled their relationship/marriage. The husband claimed they were merely roommates for financial purposes. There was no ceremony to reinstate their marriage.
As a result of them living together and him covering the costs of the house, the husband stopped paying the agreed spousal support from the legal separation. Unsurprisingly, whether they were back together or just roommates, things went south between them. The wife filed a request for the court to take notice of the NY legal separation in CA for enforcement of non-payment on spousal support. When she wasn’t getting anywhere with the legal separation filing, she changed it to a request for dissolution.
Throughout the case, she filed motions seeking all kinds of stuff, property, additional money, income from her husband’s rental properties, and claimed he had hidden assets when they legally separated. For the most part, the wife was in pro-bono throughout this because no one would represent her.
Most of her court filings were 70+ pages written in all capital letters with incoherent saying things such as ‘LIES LIES ALL LIES AGAINST ME I TELL ONLY TRUTH TRUTH BEFORE GOD HUSBAND LYING SONS LYING ALL LIES.’
She missed multiple court dates claiming illness. When she did bother to show up, she’d either have a neck brace or eye patch on but miraculously wouldn’t need either when she wasn’t in the courtroom. When we had the trial, she showed up late on the first and second days and the judge had to end the trial early on day three because she refused to cross-examine witnesses.
The judge finally was over it so he asked the parties to submit answers to some lingering questions he had in writing and he’d make his ruling after reviewing those. It was a crazy case.”
Brainwashing
“My client is a very sweet woman and her first husband died saving the country during a war. She is also in defense and later she met another man in defense and they got married. He had two children from his previous marriage and she took care of them as if they were her own. The man, however, was a little psychotic and started hitting her when he found out she was pregnant with her first child. Soon afterward, he accepted the child and she forgave him.
Fast forward to a few years, the man was court-martialled and was suspended from the force. He got a job as a pilot in commercial airlines. Throughout these years, she never left his side but he started brainwashing the third child into believing that the lady had killed his first wife and her first husband. The child was seven. When the lady realized what was happening, she tried to take the child away from him and moved to a guest house. During this time, her parents had also come to stay over.
He used to send his other two kids to harass the poor family at three a.m. to take the child away, but the lady never opened up. She couldn’t call the cops because she loved those children and the man knew this. Finally, she asked the guards at the base to throw out the husband for her safety and got a restraining order.
The other girls, however, attacked the house where her parents were sleeping. That is when she contacted us after filing all relevant documents and restraining orders. In a negotiation meeting, the man said that if she transferred all the joint property they had in his name, he will give up fighting for the custody of their kid.
The other two girls were completely brainwashed and also wanted to stay with their father owing to the fact that they were biologically related. We had to fight tooth and nail to win this but in the end, we did.”
