Lawyers don't have the best reputations to begin with, and Gary Karpin isn't helping their cause.

The 57-year-old man posed as an Arizona divorce lawyer since 1996, reports The Arizona Republic. 

Karpin was, in fact, a trained attorney, although he has been disbarred in Vermont and Maine. When he landed in Arizona, he skipped the bar entirely and instead set up shop in divorce law, specializing in mediation - and raking in at least $300,000 from the 24 known cases he filed.

How was he discovered? When a client discovered Karpin was dating his wife, he dug up some interesting dirt on his "lawyer."

Unfortunately, this isn't the only case of dishonesty in divorce (no, we're not talking about your ex). Just last week, we posted "Fraudster Bilks Divorce Group." A North Carolina woman offered a sob story to her divorce support group, which came to her aid with more than $6000. Turns out, it was one big lie.

Karpin faced his own lies in his two-month trial, during which he represented himself; the jury found him guilty on 23 counts of theft and one count of fraud. Karpin is awaiting sentencing and could face more than nine years of jail time.

Photo: The Arizona Republic

The bi-partisan council of the Alaska Legislature accepted unanimously (12 to 0) the conclusions of an investigator: Sarah Palin abused her powers as governor. The investigation said that she, her husband, and members of her staff applied pressure on subordinates to get rid of her sister’s ex-husband, the state trooper Michael Wooten.

This is a violation of the ethics act of the Alaska executive branch, which says that "any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust."

Censure or disciplinary measures will be decided by the state executive branch (headed by Palin), the attorney general (appointed by Palin), or the State Personnel Board, which is conducting its own investigation.

But the lasting punishment Palin could receive will come from public opinion. Pundits have noted that being found to abuse power while running as the vice presidential candidate is a blow to her credibility, especially because so little is known about her governing style, and she has portrayed herself as an ethics reformer.

Lyda Green, the Republican president of the Alaska Senate, said the report would damage the Governor’s reputation. She said: “The problem with power is that people pay attention to it, and it's very easy to get beside yourself and use it in the wrong way.

"And we do have to leave personal business at home.”

(Green, apparently, is no fan of Governor Palin. When Palin was nominated she told The Anchorage Daily News,  "She's not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president? Look at what she's done to this state. What would she do to the nation?")

Israel Meir Briksman is not the traditional "Wanted" man. Yet his picture is splayed across his Brooklyn neighborhood with instructions to his fellow community members: An arrest warrant has been issued against the man, and he is to be shunned.

The crime? He will not grant his wife a "get," or a spiritual divorce, says web site haaretz.com. On paper, the Orthodox Jewish community has agreed to publicly shun husbands who refuse their wives a divorce until they come forward. In reality, this is the first enforcement of the declaration.

Says the article:

Briksman's picture was released on the Web site of the rabbinic court, alongside photographs of other men who have refused to give their wives divorces.

Of the men who information was published, one has already come forward and granted his wife a get. But Briksman, who had been in custody battles with his wife of eight years over the couple's children, has yet to resurface.

You may remember a piece we ran last month, "'Get' This: Prenups May Be Required for Australian Jews," which mandated both husband and wife to allow the possibility of a get, in addition to a civil divorce, should the couple split.

Seems modern day realities are invading even the most sacred of traditions, but, we have to say, sometimes for the better.

Briksman's wife believes her spouse in the U.S. but will not return to New York anytime soon and she will remain "aguna," or "chained," the label given to women whose husband's refuse a divorce.

You are parents forever, even after divorce. That conventional wisdom resonated this week with the new dust-up between Peter Cook and Christie Brinkley. As we reported this week, Cook apparently violated a confidentiality agreement by deciding to appear on 20/20 with Barbara Walters tonight.

Brinkley swiftly tried to then bar the philandering father from seeing her two children, Jack and Sailor, this weekend.

But a Long Island judge played Solomon and found a solution. Cook can take the children but as Brinkley's lawyer explained, he "has to be away from his home and he can't expose them to the 20/20 broadcast."

Cook claimed he wouldn’t have exposed the children in any case, but the children are seen in the 20/20 broadcast.

A person close to Cook said, "I find it silly that someone who not only allows her children to be in the media but encourages it would have a complaint like this."

The people who should have a complaint are the children.

I’m glad that Sailor and Jack have each other as confidantes since they are caught in the middle like fish in a net while their parents continue their hostilities. Children want to love both parents, and when thrown into an ocean of he said/she said charges, they are left confused, conflicted and hurt. At least they have each other as they swim through these murky waters.

That is no small thing. Often siblings in divorce form enduring bonds.

Forgiveness is difficult when you are co-parenting after a hostile divorce. Christie Brinkley clearly didn't want to have those wounds reopened by a Barbara Walters interview with her ex.

By all accounts the Divorce, Separation Support Group of Raleigh, North Carolina, is a terrific bunch of people, both men and women, at least 600 members, who meet once a week to give advice and help each other. The group was betrayed last January by a Fayetteville woman, Margaret Irene Haithcock, 51, who got $6,241 out of them by lying.

She came to the group and announced that she had a triple tragedy that had put her in debt. Her son had been killed in Iraq, she said, and she had cancer, and needed further treatments at Duke. Also, a fire had burned down her house and her letters from her son who was killed in Iraq.

The group, in response, held several fund raisers for her and actually had a memorial service for her son.

But it turned out that none of that was true.

An arrest warrant was issued in June, charging her with obtaining property by false pretenses. The warrant said that the claims of her illness and a dead son were offered only as a way to get money from the group. It took authorities more than two months to find her.

Haithcock, who is also known as Margaret H. Cooke, was arrested last month. According to records at the North Carolina Department of Corrections, she has a history of arrests and convictions dating from 1984 to 1990. She was imprisoned, most recently, for six months in 1990 on forgery charges. Other charges included credit card fraud, credit card theft, attempted forgery, and cheating on property services.

Haithcock/Cooke pleaded guilty on Thursday (October 9) to the charges, and has been ordered to repay the divorce support group. She was given three years of probation, fined $200, and ordered to undergo a mental health assessment.

Finally, she was told not to be in touch with the support group ever again.

What no one has made clear, however, is whether or not Haithcock/Cooke lied about another thing: Was she ever divorced?

In Florida, there is no such thing as “joint custody”; instead it is called “shared parental responsibility.” The person given custody is technically the “primary residential custodian” and the other parent is the “secondary residential custodian.”

Why? Because courts around the world are trying to remove inflammatory words from family law, in hopes that will make divorce less fractious. In 2005, France eliminated any gender bias in the language in its divorce laws. It treats mothers and fathers as exact equals, except in one area: a wife may take back her maiden name.

As long ago as 1991, the British courts changed the language for custody, in an attempt to remove the sense of ownership that went along with the word “custody.” Because of that, 17 years ago, “we heaved a collective sigh of relief,” said Jonathan Smith, a family lawyer in Great Britain.

The problem, he said, was that the courts were using the new terms “parental responsibility,” “residence,” and (for the parent who does not live with the child) “contact” time.

But, he said, regular people, and the press, continued to talk about "custody" and "access" to the child.

And yet, people keep trying. In 2001, the Minnesota legislature adopted new language for custody and visitation, ahem, “in an attempt to lessen the animosity in custody battles.” One parent is the “primary caregiver,” but both parents are apportioned “parenting time.”

Even in New York, where we and everyone else have endlessly referred to “custody” in celebrity cases, like the Christie Brinkley-Peter Cook divorce, the actual terms are “residential custody” to one parent, making the other parent the “non-residential parent.”

Last week, we highlighted the story of a husband who threatened to divorce his ex-smoker wife if she lit up again; this week, cigars are the point of contention.

An otherwise happy Egyptian wife is divorcing her husband — and his stogie habit — reports Russian news source Novosti. The woman alleges that her partner refuses to smoke outside their home, and, consequently, she has developed a heavy allergy.

In her own words:

"My husband deliberately puts my life to danger. And I am not ready to sacrifice my life for the sake of love for him," she said.

She calls him "inflexible"; he calls her "inhumane":

"I am a draftsman engineer, and I often take additional work home to earn more money for my loved but ungrateful wife," he lamented.

Feels like everything's going up in smoke these days...

Gov. Sarah Palin may be not be getting a wink of sleep now that an Alaska state judge allowed a probe to go forward into whether she abused her power. The Republican vice presidential nominee is under fire for pressuring Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan to fire her ex brother-in-law, a state trooper.

The charges are that pressure to fire the trooper came from the Governor herself, her husband, Todd, and her staff. After Monegan did not agree, she fired him, citing disagreement over budget cuts.

And to her, that's a heck of a good reason and why should it be questioned otherwise?

On Thursday Judge Peter Michalski threw out the lawsuit filed by five Republican state legislators who claimed that Palin was the victim of an unfair partisan probe. The Republicans appear to be worried that a damaging report may surface before Election Day and affect voters. Or at least the kind of voters who vote based on performance.

The attorney for the five state legislators, Kevin Clarkson, claimed that the body that ordered the investigation had exceeded its authority.

But Michalski agreed with defense attorney Peter Maassen, who argued that the Legislature has broad authority to investigate the governor. The mere appearance of impropriety does not mean any individual's right to fairness was violated, Michalski wrote in his decision.

“It is legitimately within the scope of the legislature's investigatory power to inquire into the circumstances surrounding the termination (of) a public officer the legislature had previously confirmed,” the judge wrote.

Talk about a bitter pill. In order to get health insurance, a devoted husband divorced his wife just so she would qualify for Medicaid and could have chemotherapy.

As Rudy Friece, a 72-year-old truck driver, told the “Star Banner” newspaper in Ocala, Florida, he and Emily had been happily married for almost 50 years, had two children, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. But they divorced in order for Emily to have weekly $2,800 treatments for terminal bone cancer.

Through the divorce they wiped out her right to their joint assets, thus making her eligible for Medicaid, which is intended for the poor. It would pay all of the medically necessary costs.

Medicare, which Emily qualified for based on her age, has deductibles and upper limits for hospitalization. In addition, Medicare would reimburse only 80 percent of approved out-patient treatments and doctor bills.

She could stay married and collect Medicare, but it wouldn’t cover enough; or she could get divorced and get Medicaid to cover her treatments.

Isn’t this the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever heard?

Friece said his wife refused to consider a divorce for a while out of principle. She burst into tears at the thought of dissolving their marriage. But as her cancer progressed, she gave in. “I told her she had no choice,” Friece told the newspaper. “She was getting worse and worse.”

In 2005, the couple picked up a guidebook on marital dissolutions, and marched into an Ohio courthouse, their $75 divorce petition in hand. Do you know what the judge told this loving couple, divorcing out of desperation?

Rudy Friece said the judge told them, “I've never given anyone a dissolution that had been married this long.”

Jo Wood has tried everything to get her husband to come back. Her kids have intervened. So have friends. But maybe the thought of paying $90 million may finally make Ron Wood sober.

As we reported in July, The Rolling Stones star, 61, was having an affair with Russian cocktail waitress Ekaterina Ivanova, 20 who encouraged his drinking and offered freeflowing vodka among other vices. Finally, after countless pleas from his family, Wood agreed to go to rehab.

But now that he's out, he's out and about with Ivanova again and was just seen taking her out to a London restaurant.

Natually the London papers caught them. And now Wood's wife Jo, 53, is fuming mad. After 23 years of marriage, she has consulted with divorce lawyers.

Jo Wood told “The Daily Mail”: "We've been through too much together not to stay as friends whatever happens next. … Despite everything I still really care for Ronnie."

Sounding the way we hope all women going through divorce will sound, she said: "Everything is fine, and everything is going to be fine.”

And she admitted that after spending “so many years concentrating on Ronnie … suddenly I can now concentrate on me.” And if that weren’t enough, she said, the stress has made her drop a little weight.

As has benn reported, Wood's wife has played an integral part in his career, working as his executive assistant, holding a controlling stake in the couple's finances, and acting as his personal management assistant on a number of profitable deals. Jo also serves as a joint director of Rockyarch, a literary and artistic limited company Ron Wood incorporated in 1986, and is company secretary for his fine art publisher and gallery Scream Art.