McCourt Divorce: $19M Legal Expenses?

Los Angeles - Frank and Jamie McCourt's divorce could cost the billionaire couple about $19 million, which might be one of the most expensive in state history in terms of legal expenses, it was reported today.

Frank McCourt has estimated his "divorce-related expenses" at $5 million to $10 million, while Jamie McCourt has estimated her expenses at $9 million and asked that her estranged husband be ordered to pay them, the Los Angeles Times reported.

A major issue will be whether the McCourts own the Dodgers jointly, or if one of them is the controlling owner.

Frank McCourt maintains he owns the team, and a Major League Baseball executive has said the league recognizes him as the team's owner.

Jaime McCourt was the team's CEO until her husband fired her last Oct. 22, after they separated but before she filed divorce papers.

Prominent entertainment attorney Bert Fields told The Huffington Post that Jamie McCourt has him advising her team of lawyers, and that she should be able to overturn an alleged agreement signed after 30 years of marriage that gives Jamie McCourt just 5 percent of the couple's marital assets.

"Usually the husband goes in saying, `Okay, 50-50, not 95-5'," Fields told the Web site.

Fields said the best weapon to void that agreement, which Jamie McCourt says was signed under duress, is someone Fields called an "impeachable witness" who heard Frank McCourt say he never intended to get 95 percent of their marital assets.

However, he proceeded to tell the Web site the witness heard Jamie McCourt say her husband never meant to get 95 percent:

"It's (the impeachable witness) a very, very reputable estate planner with a major firm on the Westside of L.A. before the divorce," he said. "(The witness) said to his wife `You know you signed something that gives him virtually all the property involved with the Dodgers?' And the wife said no. Frank said that was not intended."

The ownership of the team is part of the divorce litigation. Jamie McCourt, according to her husband's lawyers, gave him sole ownership in a post-nuptial agreement, while she would become sole owner of the couple's residential properties.

Fields told The Huffington Post that Jamie McCourt has wanted to own a baseball team since she was 8 years old and that she is willing to split ownership of the Dodgers 50-50, but that Frank McCourt wants 100 percent ownership, although he used his wife's money to parley his Boston parking lot investments into the Dodgers ownership.

"She gave him his first $1,000 and her folks gave him $2 million to help with his business. Now he says she only owns 5 percent of their assets," Fields told the Web site.

Fields said Frank McCourt wants to divert Dodgers resources to his personal gain. "He wants to bring the (Dodger) payroll down the next few years and income up," he told the Huffington Post. "He's raising ticket prices, that guy is thinking money."

Attorney Marshall Grossman, who represents the Dodgers, told The Times that fans should not worry that about the financial drain affecting the team's payroll.

Frank McCourt told reporters at the Dodgers spring training complex in Glendale, Ariz., that the allegations would be addressed in future court filings.

Though specific information about divorce costs is hard to come by, The Times consulted with several family law experts, none of whom could recall a divorce costing $19 million.

"I'm pretty sure there's not been any litigation in a California divorce where they've spent so much on attorneys' fees," said Lynn Soodik, a Santa Monica family law attorney who represented Meg Ryan in her divorce from Dennis Quaid.

Each of McCourts has retained multiple law firms. Last month, seven lawyers were in court for a hearing on whether to postpone the trial date, on the same day other lawyers in the case were believed to be taking a deposition from Jamie McCourt.

Attorney Connolly Oyler, who has handled celebrity divorces, said a total cost of $5 million would be "consistent with most high-profile cases."

Divorce lawyers generally charge from $250 to $750 per hour in Southern California, according to Sharon Hulse, executive director of the Levitt and Quinn Family Law Center in Los Angeles. A simple divorce could cost $10,000, she said.

The Britney Spears-Kevin Federline divorce cost $835,000, The Times reported last year.

Former NFL quarterback Bernie Kosar told the Miami Herald last year he spent more than $4 million on attorney fees -- at $600 an hour -- on his divorce.