I have eagerly awaited the news accounts each day of the ongoing saga of the former first family of the State of New Jersey.

While by all accounts, there is some exceptional lawyering going on, one cannot help to think that this is a case that should have been settled or that one or more of the parties is using the trial to settle personal vendettas.

Thankfully for the parties’ child, they settled custody and parenting issues.  However, as the judge admonished at points in the case, their daughter is going to be able to read all about her parents’ divorce by just typing hers and their names into Google.  And for what?

While their marital lifestyle was perhaps unusual from the common folk, in both financial and other ways, at the end of the day, this was a short marriage. The testimony from both as reported suggests that there was no savings and few assets.  The disputes as to alimony seem absurd because even if there was a viable claim, how much could it have been for.  The legal and experts fees had to have exceeded the claim.

Again, I don’t know all of the facts and only know what I read.  However, I always tell my clients that you don’t want to spend $10 in legal fees to get $5 back.  I wonder at the end of the day whether the battling McGreeveys will have done just that.  If so, that is good for no one – even the lawyers.  Moreover, I hope that the trial was not a vehicle for either to get the last of their 15 minutes of fame while at the same time, preventing parties with real issues from getting their day in court.