@Hiraeth , you have experience drafting prenups - is Alice's prenup 'full of holes' and open to challenge?
I can imagine Janina's strategy is going to be to 1. try to poke holes in the prenup 2. get lifetime spousal support due to long marriage 3. get additional support due to 'illness' and a previous pattern of behaviour of Ioan supporting her while she was 'bedbound'. 4. try to get around DVRO via 'mental breakdown'
I'll be waiting in the wings while Janina tries to get Alice to provide medical proof of her diagnoses and illnesses and mental breakdown............
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Just FYI the law about getting support due to "pattern of behavior" she was talking about is about cohabirating non-married couples, this assumption already exists for married couples and is covered over spousal support. That's why California makes spousal support depending on the marriage length.
Obviously lawyers can always argue anything and perhaps set a precedent, but even if they tried the "pattern of behavior confirming oral agreement" argument Alice was going to auditions and had nannies, so she didnt give up any career like in the Marvin case that would serve as an indicator for the agreement to exist. Plus both Ioan and Alice have denied that they had an agreement that she would stay home (Alice has multiple times contradicted herself here, so her case has no legs to stand on)
I think the chances for lifetime spousal support is very low considering how much she owes him. Unless Ioan keeps his whole pension and gets Alice's too or something.
No DVRO has ever been believably explained by an mental breakdown. Her appeal time has long passed for this, and even for the child custody case she'd need to deliver proof that none of the things that lead to the DVRO hinders her abilities to parent.
The only point she has a minor chance is the prenup, because this can always go either way, but California tends to enforce them. And if none of her previous 5 lawyers found something, then I doubt #6 will either.