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Angelina Jolie filed official paperwork to ask that the private judge overseeing her divorce proceedings from Brad Pitt be disqualified for failure to fully disclose his business relationship with her ex's attorneys.
The duo, who share six children together: Maddox, 19, Pax, 16, Zahara, 15, Shiloh, 14, Knox, 12, and Vivienne, 12, have been locked in a divorce battle since 2016 when it was officially revealed that they were calling it quits after roughly 10 years together.
In a filing in Los Angeles Superior Court, Jolie argues that Judge John W. Ouderkirk should be taken off the divorce case because he was too late and not forthcoming enough about other cases he was hired for involving Pitt attorney Anne C. Kiley.
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The filing said that during the Jolie-Pitt proceedings, Ouderkirk has “failed to disclose the cases that demonstrated the current, ongoing, repeat-customer relationship between the judge and Respondent’s counsel.”
It goes on to say that Pitt's attorney “actively advocated for Judge Ouderkirk’s financial interests in moving — over the opposing party’s opposition — to have his appointment (and his ability to continue to receive fees) extended in a high profile case.”
Pitt and Jolie, like other high-profile couples, are paying for a private judge in their divorce case to keep many of its filings and the personal and financial details within them sealed, though some legal moves must be made within standard court procedure.
Angelina Jolie attends the "Go Behind the Scenes with the Walt Disney Studios," press line at the 2019 D23 Expo, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2019, in Anaheim, Calif. (Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
However, Jolie notes in her filing that just because they're using a private judge does not mean he or she is not subject to the same rules for disclosure and conflict of interest that all other judges must abide by.
The filing says “it doesn’t matter if Judge Ouderkirk is actually biased. Under California law disqualification is required so long as a person aware of the facts ‘might reasonably entertain a doubt’ about Judge Ouderkirk’s ability to remain impartial.”
Jolie's attorneys have sought in private proceedings to have Ouderkirk disqualify himself, but the filing says Pitt's side has insisted on keeping him.
“As is set forth in the filing, all my client is asking for is a fair trial based on facts, with no special favors extended to either side," Jolie's attorney Samantha Bley DeJean said in an email to The Associated Press. “The only way litigants can trust the process is for everyone involved to ensure that there is transparency and impartiality.”
Angelina Jolie asked the judge in her and Brad Pitt's divorce proceedings to disqualify himself. (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
Pitt and Jolie were finally declared divorced, and she dropped "Pitt" from her name, in April of 2019, after their lawyers asked for a bifurcated judgment, meaning that two married people can be declared single while other issues, including finances and child custody, remain.
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Because most of the documents have been sealed, it is not clear what issues remain unresolved, but Jolie filed papers in 2018 saying Pitt wasn’t paying sufficient child support, which his attorneys disputed, calling the filing an effort to manipulate media coverage of the split.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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