Divorce battles are notorious for leaving husbands and wives penniless whilst filling the pockets of their lawyers.
Today the boot was on the other foot as it was revealed two wealthy lawyers have 'tragically' squandered almost the whole of their joint fortune of almost £900,000 fighting each other through the divorce courts.
Judge Clive Million slammed Anna-Marie Harvey Kavanagh, 47, and her ex-husband Giles Kavanagh, 52, who - despite both being practising solicitors - have 'spent almost all their assets in litigation.'
He criticised the couple 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 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.
Today they were back in court arguing before top family judge, Lord Justice McFarlane, over the level of maintenance payments Mr Kavanagh was ordered to pay to his ex-wife.
The judge, sitting at London’s Civil Appeal Court, commented that Judge Million, who presided over the case both in the High Court’s Family Division and at a County Court, had said of the couple: 'They wrecked the ship then turned their attention to the lifeboats.'
'By 2008 they had spent over £879,000 on legal costs and contested proceedings.
Children Act proceedings had cost about £545,000. The financial proceedings cost over £303,000 and Family Law Act applications cost another £32,000.
When lawyers fall out of love
When lawyers fall out of love
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: When lawyers fall out of love
What a terrible way for Kavanagh QC to end...
Why is it that when Miley Cyrus gets naked and licks a hammer it's 'art' and 'edgy' but when I do it I'm 'drunk' and 'banned from the hardware store'?