WAR Part 2! Arbitration - Divorced from reality

Recently I dissected the first two episodes of the new legal drama WAR starring Dominic West and Sienna Miller billed as a battle over a scandalous, high‑stakes divorce between a tech mogul played by West and his film star wife played by Miller. (When will we have a drama about a high tech mogul wife and her blond pretty film star husband do we think?!)

Anyway, having explained in my previous article how this TV series really is divorced (no pun intended!) from reality we now have Episode 3. Does it get any better?

This week we are off to arbitration. You may recall from my last musings on the subject that arbitration is not compulsory whatever TV land likes to think. But that’s where we end up. Dom and Sienna believe that’s what they must do.

What actually is arbirtration?

Now in the real legal world I inhabit arbitration is a good idea. It is cheaper and quicker than court and it is private so useful for the super rich and famous. But it is voluntary. So you get to agree a date with your opponent. You don’t get railroaded into a hearing in a couple of weeks. You have time to prepare. And most importantly you have to first exchange financial disclosure and have houses, businesses etc valued. If you are watching the series you may have spotted last week that we seemed to rush into mediation practically the day after engaging lawyers and everyone was throwing settlement figures around without even considering or disclosing what they had actually got or needed for that matter.

How does arbitration really work?

Step 1 in the real world is disclose what you have. Step 2 is raise any questions about the other party’s disclosure and have any assets where the value is disputed independently assessed, usually by a single jointly appointed expert. Then and only then are you ready to negotiate.

How is the show portraying it?

However Episode 3 sees our top tier legal teams gearing up to do battle seemingly with no valuation of Dom’s tech empire. Sienna’s legal team bemoan the fact that getting the information they need will take weeks. In the real world let’s talk months but why get in the way of a good plot?!

Dom’s legal team however have an idea! Why not transfer his shares to his financial advisor Gillian. Then, he is told, Sienna can’t touch it.

Is this legal?

Now you don’t need me, I hope, to tell you that this is a very bad idea. On a number of fronts. Let’s gloss over the obvious; Gillian may leg it with the dosh. More importantly you can’t just get rid of your money and then say sorry I’m poor now you can’t touch me! It doesn’t work that way!

The court has wide ranging powers to stop someone transferring assets and if they have already done it to make them transfer them back again. You could be sent to prison for contempt of court. You could be fined. And financial misconduct in court proceedings is a sure fire way to get a substantial costs order against you and the court can take it into account in deciding how to divide up the cash.

But it looks like Dom is going ahead with it. I can’t wait for Episode 4!