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Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt in 2015 at premiere in Hollywood.(Photo: MARK RALSTON / AFP / Getty Images)
The Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are in the process of being dragged along by law enforcement.
And if Pitt and Jolie have their way, it will be all the same behind closed doors. If it happens at all.
The couple could still reach an agreement out of court can the messy breakup of their family behind them but their ability to see eye-to-eye seems to have deserted them.
Still, a source familiar with the situation but not authorized to speak publicly said both sides "are still working together to find an out-of-court settlement."
"Sometimes we do not realize that just because someone is a bad parent," says New York City-based divorce lawyer Jacqueline Newman, who's been watching the case as an example of how breakup can go terribly wrong.
The two stars' legal teams have been in fierce negotiations since September 2016, when Jolie filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences and "the health of the family" after 12 years together, two of those years in what we later learned Was not wedded bliss.
Their custody dispute comes down to this: She wants the physical custody of their six kids, ranging in age from 10 to 17; he wants to share physical custody.
Now, according to TMZ, NBC News, Entertainment Tonight and E! News, they have filed a document in Los Angeles County Family Court on June 30, 2019, on the appointment of retired Judge John Ouderkirk as a temporary "private" judge in their case.
He has handled all pre-trial issues and motions and will be presiding over the custody trial, scheduled for Dec. 4, which is likely to be closed to a public courthouse. In fact, because the case is being privately handled,
In California's public Family Courts, most proceedings are open to the public except certain issues involving children, when the courtroom can be closed.
Assuming the Jolie-Pitt custody case goes to a trial, the media might be barred from the proceeding.
But John Chason, a 23-year-old family-law specialist in California, says that it is a two-way street. Most private proceedings are held in law offices or mediation centers, not public courthouses, he said.
"They are not automatically closed but have a practical matter how does the media or the public wait for a private office?" Chason said.
He suggested that media coverage of such a process could be handled by a pool of reporters representing all the media. "In California short proceedings are If so, they would be allowed, "Chason said.
Aside from privacy, there are good reasons to hire a private judge (usually for about $ 600- $ 700 an hour), says Chason: They can arrange hearings and discussions around the divorcing parties' schedules (crucial for movie stars constantly on the move), they can offer a low-profile law to meet a public courthouse with reporters and onlookers, and they take a case at a time.
"You are the only case that day – you are only allowed on their dance card," Chason says.
Even though the Jolie-Pitt divorce has been a "private" matter since at least January 2017, it has not stopped the regular leap in the box.
Representatives for both stars declined to USA TODAY.
The breakdown of the Pitt-Jolie marriage began a month after Pretty shocked Hollywood by filing for divorce in September 2016, just two years after the romantic wedding in the countryside they said their kids wanted.
The following month anonymous accusations surfaced that she acted because it was very heavy and he got into a fight with his oldest, Maddox, we had a plane.
Those allegations were short-lived – they were investigated by the county Department of Children and Family Services and the FBI was cleared – but they were damaging to Pitt's reputation.
Meanwhile, their lawyers have been dickering behind closed doors. As in any celeb divorce, the usual unnamed "sources" were leaking to benefit one side or the other.
In November 2017, she and Pitt had reached an interim custody agreement in which she would continue to have a physical custody of the kids. Pitt immediately disputed that, claiming it was only an extension of an existing interim agreement.
By January 2017 the couple had their private judges and the tabloid headlines.
In June 2018, the judge issued an order to her father, she could be in danger of losing custody. The judge said it was important that each child have a healthy relationship with both parents.
Then in August 2018, a Jolie bombshell: She's accused of having to pay for "meaningful" child support for a year and a half.
Pitt hit back, asserting in court documents that he loaned $ 8 million for her current Los Angeles residence and has paid over $ 1.3 million in bills for her and the children.
All of this makes marital lawyers such as Newman despair. She says she tells customers how to think about how they want their children to describe their parents' divorce when they get older.
"Do they want their children to say" My mom and dad let us know their parents, "or" My mother hated my father and let us all know It was like living through a war.
"It is even worse for (the Jolie-Pitt kids) because their parents are being played out in the media for them to see and all of their friends to see," Newman said.
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