Mills v. McCartney: Entertaining but irrelevant

Link: Text of full judgment: Heather Mills v Sir Paul McCartney - Times Online.

I agree with the Mills opinion -- the idea of deserving to be supported "in the manner to which she has become accustomed" is not the law, and in fact it has not been the law in most people's lifetimes.

However, I worry that people who are facing divorce themselves will not realize that the facts which the judge dwelt on -- at least in the parts of the opinion that were extensively quoted in the press -- are completely irrelevant in nearly all divorces.

Lawyers and judges generally don't want to hear all that detail about how much the spouses supported each other's careers, how they treated each other, etc. Yes, it is technically part of the property-division law in my state, Virginia, and it occasionally comes up in a case, but you only bring it up when you are going to trial anyway on more important issues, since your client is testifying anyway. Nearly always, when it does come up, the judge says that he has carefully considered all those factors and finds that they are a wash, and the marital property will be divided 50-50.