Page 73 - The Circle of Life

As you know in law, if you lose a civil case you end up paying the legal costs of

the winning party. As with all things in law it had a good motive as it tried to
limit spurious claims and in some cases (it never happens in real life) the
attorney may be ordered to pay the wasted costs out of his own pocket. Working

on contingency is legally possible but not done as much as in other countries.

Typically a "no win no fee" arrangement is in very specific claims against the
road accident fund which unless your claim is fraudulent you cannot lose
anyway. It is very easy money. The other "no win no fee" fee scheme is with

debt collection where they take up to 10 percent of each payment received as

commission. It is a numbers game or a waste of time.

The attempt to reduce the court case load did not work by the way. The amount

of claims is growing rapidly every year and your chances of going to court within
3 to 5 years since summons (if defended properly) is almost zero.

Consequently if the two former love birds sue each other it would be wrong to

use the joint estate to pay the awarded costs and thus it must be paid out of the
unsuccessful partner's separate estate or his part of the estate after the divorce.

The problem as always in law that there must be money from which to pay or it
is a impractical exercise from any viewpoint. This money then becomes the

separate property of the winning partner. I think you all will agree that this is
the way it should be otherwise you will pay half of your own costs even if you

win.

If either partner sues a third party for non-matrimonial damages, such as for
defamation or for personal injury, any money awarded as a result becomes the
separate property of that partner and does not fall into the joint estate. This is

also fair enough for the one who suffered the damages is the one who should be

rewarded. Not the non-suffering one who had nothing to do with the case.

It happens that one party inflicts bodily injury on the other and is sued for

compensation. Such wards must be paid out of the half-share of the guilty
spouse and in so far as it does not cover the sum then out of the joint estate

until an adjustment can be made on dissolution of the marriage. The reason for
this is to take care of the medical costs for the injured one. It is important

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