In this video divorce attorney Alla Kurolapnik provides a digest of the case of Emily Ratajkowski, including the key issues that could be applied to any divorce case, including how does cheating affect divorce and the issue of a diamond ring.

SPEAKERS

Alla Kurolapnik, Michael Levitis

Michael Levitis  23:53

Hello, everybody. It’s Michael Levitis from JurisQ.com with divorce attorney Alla Kurolapnik. Alla, welcome back.

Alla Kurolapnik  24:03

Thank you, Michael. Thank you for having me.

Michael Levitis  24:07

You and I discussed various, sometimes dry, legal topics. We’ll try to make it interesting. But I also on occasion bring you when there are celebrity news, when there’s any kind of news that affects the world tour, and recently just a few weeks ago unfortunately another celebrity couple filed for divorce. I want to digest the case with you, the case of Emily Ratajkowski. She’s of course the famous model and actress and her husband is also not a chump. He is a producer. It’s very interesting when you analyze these cases, a lot could be learn, they could also be applied to your own cases. We can draw a lot of lessons and see how the words war really come to live and becomes applicable. So let me just read a little bit about this case from an article in a New York Post. Emily Ratajkowski files for divorce from Sebastian McLard. Now, they are a young couple. They’ve only been there for a few years. Four years, as a matter of fact, they have two kids, and of course, she got a giant engagement slash, wedding ring. So we want to know everything about it. Let’s talk about whether mediation because this is the bulk of what you do, whether mediation could really aid in the case of this by a celebrity couple, what do you say, Alla?

Alla Kurolapnik  25:53

So here’s the way I digested. I mean, I would think, and I could be wrong about this, but I have to presume that the parties must have had a prenuptial agreement with respect to their finances, but they do have two children from what I understand. The fight here may very well be with respect to the children. Since they’ve already filed in court and are now appearing in court, it is my inclination to say that they probably couldn’t work out their difference. Even if they did try mediation, they may not ever know, I don’t know, they have or they haven’t, but I would assume that would be the first analysis I would do. The second analysis is if they have not tried mediation, they are now in court, and I’m wondering, whatever judge, they’re gonna get assigned to whether or not that judge is going to suggest the presumptive mediation program to the parties

Michael Levitis  26:55

Is that mandatory or something that judges recommend?

Alla Kurolapnik  26:58

It’s not mandatory in the sense like in New Jersey. So in other words, the program is available, not all parts, not all the matrimonial parts in New York have adopted it, not all parts recommended, and you have to remember a case has to be right, in order to be able to put it forth, to mediation. In other words, there are some cases where the fight is over discovery, maybe, and mediation wouldn’t be appropriate. In those particular cases, they’d have a hearing officer assigned to them to oversee discovery. So that’s the more appropriate avenue to take. So not every case is mediation, ripe or ready or appropriate for mediation. But in this particular case, in this spotlight case that we’re talking about, I’m wondering whether or not I’d have to presume that they must have tried to mediate, because with celebrity couples, the last thing you want to do is being chord, unless A — you’re trying to do it for PR purposes, or B — there’s truly a fight to be had with respect to something big. I’m assuming that there’s a fight to be had here, whether it’s respect to their children, or finances.

Michael Levitis  28:17

Yeah, we thought Emily is the one who filed first so if you will be attorney for Sebastian or husband, you will recommend that he should agree, or request mediation in this case?

Alla Kurolapnik  28:30

Well, I think it depends on what the issues are. I think it depends if she’s telling him: look, I want to move to whatever country I’m from, and you’re not seeing these children. I don’t think there’s an issue here to be mediated, then she filed a motion for that. She’s filed the motion with the court for relocation, you can try to hold the motion in a band and try to work it out and for those of us who don’t know, what emotion is, emotion is a written request for a judge to issue use some kind of relief. So when that’s done, I’m not really sure whether or not there’s something here to mediate if the request is, I want to move out of the United States, take my kids with me, and I really dare gee, you can see them once a year when I’m back in New York.

Michael Levitis  29:23

Every case is really case-specific.

Alla Kurolapnik  29:27

There has to be an initial analysis done with every divorce to determine, at least from my perspective, which way the case needs to flow, and how to posture the case so that you’re able to obtain the best result for your client.

Michael Levitis  29:44

Speaking of posturing, her husband, Sebastian was accused of being a serial cheater, and allegedly, there are allegation of cheating in this case as well in this particular marriage. A lot of people don’t really understand this and they think cheating is a big part of a divorce proceeding, legally speaking, from your experience, from your knowledge, if you prove the other party power cheated – does that at all affect the terms of a divorce?

Alla Kurolapnik  30:22

So let’s start with the basic issue, which is the grounds for divorce. You know, New York used to be a ground state, which meant that in order to get divorce, you couldn’t just say, I don’t love you anymore, I’m sorry. Like it just didn’t work out. I just want out. You used to have to have grounds, one of the grounds for divorce was either adultery, or cruel, inhuman treatment, and those two often flow together, because the adultery could be so bad, that it’s almost cruel and inhumane treatment of so all ….. So those two kind of go hand in hand, adultery is far more difficult to prove and cruel and inhuman treatment. Again, we’ve now moved away from all those things and we now have something in New York called irretrievable breakdown of a marriage where you could just even adultery. Or you could say: look, I’m done. Whether you cheated on me, whether you cursed at me, whether you hit me, whether you lie to me, whether you spend all our money, whatever it is that you did, whatever your transgressions are, I’m just done with it. So I went out, and you don’t have to then prove what it is. But to go back to your question, does adultery play into a divorce? The answer is yes, to the extent that it affects the finances. So for instance, if Sebastian kept a lover for the years of his marriage, and he bought this lover, very lavish gifts, and took her to very lavish dinners, and want her very lavish dresses and took her on vacations, guess why he spent a portion of the marital assets on this woman. So part of it’s called dissipation of the marital assets, and if you cannot dissipate the marital assets, you cannot spend this money on your mistress. So half the money, you can, but half the money belongs to your spouse.

Michael Levitis  32:20

To be able to claw back from the husband.

Alla Kurolapnik  32:25

Absolutely. So let’s say you spend a million dollars on his beautiful Mistress $500,000 of that million belongs to the other spouse, so that money is going to have to come out and share equitable distribution. So that’s how it affects the divorce doesn’t affect it in any other way. Only with respect to the children and again, an adulterer doesn’t make a bad parent. It says something about the choices that you make, but it doesn’t make you a bad parent. If, however, you’ve neglected your parental duties, or you’ve exposed your child to any kinds of acts that were inappropriate, introducing, you’re somebody you now had as their new mother and confusing the child, those kinds of things absolutely play into custody. So, can adultery play into the divorce to an extent? Yes. Distribution and certainly with children.

Michael Levitis  33:25

Very good. Thank you so much for that all encompassing answer. As a final point, a very interesting side note, in this case, which probably is present in many celebrity divorces is the huge ring, Sebastion gave Emily a multi carat ring or I forget how many carat, but it was featured all over Page Six in many photoshots, paparazzi shots, what do you think, a ring like that? Would Emily be able to keep it or have to be given back with Sebastion or has to be somehow split? What usually happens in the case of this? What are the what are the considerations?

Alla Kurolapnik  34:10

So generally gifts given to someone prior to the marriage are separate property gifts for them to keep, there has been some case law that talks about specifically engagement rings which are given in contemplation of marriage. If one party that breaks their promise, so to speak or to marry the other person the question is whether or not I can get that give back, so the New York higher courts to some extent held their variants of case law some cases of how that look, if the ring one particular case I’m thinking of, the couple was engaged to be married, but the husband hadn’t gotten a divorce from his first wife yet. So under though circumstances this couldn’t have been a gift meaning contemplation of marriage because it couldn’t have been the contemplation of marriage because he was still married. So the marriage would have been void and illegal. Under those circumstances, she was allowed to keep the engagement. But there are some case laws, that have gone a different way that said, if it’s a gift given in contemplation of marriage, that there are some ways that are fact- specific.

Michael Levitis  35:30

There’s no easy answer looks like, complicated case specific and really depends on the judge and on how they agree. Speaking of agreeing, I think the case like this, or any other kind of very contentious case, it’s a good idea to consider mediation, and this is something that you do as an attorney. I think it’s a good idea to consult with an attorney if you’re going through divorce, you can work on an issue to go to a mediation friendly attorney like Alla Kurolapnik. Alla, thank you so much for your digest, we hope that in their uncoupling process they have to consider about their kids, because for another many, many years, they still have to deal with each other, work with each other, regarding their kids, that should be the priority. I believe that mediation process really takes that mentality into consideration. Alla thank you so much. Thank you everybody for tuning in. We’ll bring back Alla in our next sessions shortly with more FAQs, frequently asked questions and answers on divorce and mediation law. Thank you. Take care.

Alla Kurolapnik  36:48 Thank you so much.