Australia's longest-running divorce lawsuit, which cost nearly $3 million for 15 years, is finally over.
The divorce in Kunzhou, which began in 2003, was settled in March after a court-imposed settlement was filed, records show.
The court only made a decision until the couple had settled a commercial claim. It was the commercial compensation that led to a drag on property disputes.
In an interview with the Sunday Post, the wife, who declined to be named, said she had spent more than 2 million yuan on lawyers' fees because her ex-husband did not want to produce documents or bank statements and did not submit written statements on time.
She said, "The family legal system is too cruel to people."
She said she agreed to share 53% of the property and eventually get about 1.7 million yuan.
She thinks the system is broken. "One is very crafty, and they take advantage of the system to pull down the other party."
Another Kunzhou man said he had spent eight hundred thousand yuan in legal fees to settle a property dispute that had been delayed for five years.
Federal Circuit Court Judge Michael Jarrett (Michael Jarrett) took 18 months after a five-day trial in August 2015 to deliver his verdict in February last year.
The case is still pending after the wife appealed the verdict, which allowed property to be distributed equally to both sides, each earning 3 million yuan.
The husband said he had to pay a large sum of money to compensate for people's time and to pay his lawyer 35,000 yuan to prepare for a one-day hearing. The hearing was postponed because the judge had too many cases.
He said, "the money was made away by lawyers."
Just this month, it was reported that the Australian Bar Association wanted judges to punish those who failed to attend hearings or refused to disclose documents in an attempt to run out of money.
According to the Family Code, both parties are required to pay their own legal fees.