Mills/McCartney Divorce Case Drags On

Donna Carlisle — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 10:00:43 -0500

The Paul McCartney/Heather Mills divorce case drags on. Despite stringent rules about the secrecy of divorce proceedings in Britain, the judge presiding over the McCartney/Mills case may just reveal his ruling, or at least the settlement amount offered due to an "intense level of public interest".

The judge in the case will deliver his ruling on March 17. After both sides have an opportunity to deliver an argument about the settlement details to be released, he will decide. The former Beatle may have to part with millions, but what does it matter? He is reportedly with $1.6 billion. Heather's initial settlement had her scooping up $130 million of that.

Past judgments would indicate that the judge will decide to release some of the settlement information. Since Heather is widely believed to be aiming for disclosure of the settlement and any offers Paul made, the judge's decision might influence whether she decides to take the case to the Court of Appeals, where any information restrictions would be dropped.

I'm sure the monetary amount will have quite a bit of influence — perhaps more so than the possibility of even more publicity that she's done nothing but complain about since the divorce started.

The judge has the right to disclose the entire settlement, or just part of it, and odds are the original settlement and the released version are rather different. The first would have all the details of custody and monetary awards, whereas the public version would likely omit anything having to do with the couple's daughter, Beatrice.

Most lawyers who have offered an opinion say Heather might get about $50 million from the judge, that's on top of the original settlement amount. Of course, should the amount prove less than Heather thinks she is entitled to, the case will move to the Court of Appeals, and this entire media frenzy will be stirred up yet again.

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Mills/McCartney Divorce Case Drags On