Divorce Proceedings Turned Reality Show?
The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Fox has approved a pilot for a new reality show that offers unhappily married couples an instant divorce over the course of a single weekend. Arthurt Smith, CEO of A Smith and Co, which is also the U.S. maker of the Fox show “Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares,”has struck a deal with Jim Halfens, the Dutch entrepreneur who has made headlines recently for his real-life Divorce Hotel service that currently operates in the Netherlands, to develop the show. Smith has partnered with Mickey Stern and John Brenkus of Base Prods, a U.S. company specializing in sports science series.
The concept behind the Divorce Hotel service, as well as the reality show, is to save divorcing couples the misery, length of time, and high dollars typically involved in many divorce proceedings. After working through all of their issues, along with their legal teams, the goal is for the couple to be happily and legally divorced by Sunday night.
The one-hour pilot is planned to feature two couples planning to divorce who have no children together. The pilot will take place at a luxury hotel in a U.S. city that has not yet been chosen. However, producers have ruled out the city of Las Vegas, the traditional home of the quickie wedding.
While the brevity of a Divorce Hotel divorce may be appealing to many couples, there are a variety of legal obstacles that would make such a divorce procedure difficult. For instance, many Illinois divorces require a waiting period and/or a period of physical separation before a divorce can be granted. Additionally, the parties and their lawyers must have ready access to all pertinent financial information involved in the divorce in order to make an appropriate settlement and disposition of all assets and liabilities, which can be rather complex and difficult to obtain in a short period of time.
Although resolving your divorce through a mutually acceptable settlement over the course of two days certainly could be quicker and less stressful for all parties involved, it probably is not a realistic possibility in the vast majority of cases. Particularly in a divorce where children are involved, you need an experienced DeKalb County divorce lawyer who will take the time to sort all issues that you are facing, gather all relevant information, and help you make the decisions that are in your best interest, as well as that of your family.
