A couple have spent almost one-third of their entire estate in legal fees contesting a divorce in a move condemned by a judge as ‘madness’, reports the Daily Mail.
The cost of divorce is well known and well publicised, but an estranged couple have drawn the ire of a High Court judge who branded their contested divorce as ‘madness’ after they spent almost a third of their estate in legal fees.
The unnamed couple, aged 54 and 44, spent £920,000 on legal fees during the process of their hotly disputed divorce.
The couple were married for 18 years, accruing an estate worth just under £3m during that time. However, their contested divorce has ended up costing them nearly £1m from their shared assets.
One of the central issues in proceedings was the value of the husband’s business, which the couple employed forensic accountants to value, at a cost of £150,000.
The court case ended with the judge awarding the wife around £1m, and the husband £900,000.
The seven-day hearing was focused on recriminations from the wholly messy affair.
Mr Justice Mostyn said the couple had married in the 1990’s and split in 2011.
“I must confess to have been almost lost for words when the scale of this madness was revealed to me,” he said.
“They have spent a total of £920,000 in costs. Of this they have spent … £154,000 on forensic accountants valuing the husband’s business interests. They have spent on costs nearly a third of everything they built up over 18 years,” he added.
The judge added that such an outcome should not be allowed to happen again.
