Verdict of the Week


McCartney and Heather Mills

It is now known that Heather Mills was awarded £24.3million in her divorce settlement with Sir Paul McCartney which includes about £16million in cash and about £7million in assets. Sir Paul also agreed to pay £2million of her legal fees and will also clear the £2.2 million overdraft her bank as well as the £2 million he had already given her as an interim payment. He is also thought to have spent a further £4 million on his legal costs. Giving a grand total of almost £35 million.

An interesting figure given that the eCourt Asessment Team had put together a proposal about six months before this as a test case scenario. The eCourt Assessors only had news and media coverage facts to go on but their Verdict was as follows:

Before the settlement, the news and media were speculating that Paul McCartney could have to part with between 20 and 70 million pounds of his estimated 825 million pound fortune in a final settlement, which was probably going to include a one-off lump sum plus annual payments.

They have only been married for five years so would be harsh if the court ruling was that Paul McCartney would be asked to pay a sum at the high end of the 70 million total being talked about. When settled through the courts last year, insurance magnate John Charman was ordered to pay out £48 million to his wife after they divorced in 2003 after 27 years of marriage. This was one of the highest awards ever and it worked out at a cool £1.7 million for every year that they were married. So applying those record breaking figures here means that after 5 years of marriage, Heather could reasonably expect up to £7.5 million. With the added celebrity factor, you could make it up to £10m.

Then there is the added addition of their daughter, Beatrice, who turns four later this month. He should give them a good and secure house as part of the deal. He would almost certainly be expected to set up a trust fund for Beatrice, but this must be in proportion to his other siblings. But there should also be an annual allowance paid to Heather, to cover her upbringing and education until she was at least 21, this can be waited in terms of celebrity status and all that that entails to a further £500,000 a year, adjusted annually in line with inflation.

She also claims to have assisted Sir Paul in terms of music during this period as well, but how much she did this is not so easy to quantify. Obviously she made no contribution to any of his early writings, like Wings and the Beatles, so she couldn't expect much from those. But a good lawyer in certain countries could argue that anything written during their time together she could reasonably lay claim to fifty percent of. So to avoid a lengthy battle, we decided to err on the side of generosity and add a further £5 million.

But there is a further consideration to be taken into account and one that is arguably the most important in terms of hard cash. The real question is, how much is her silence worth to him? It appears that the biggest stumbling block is Heather Mills' refusal to accept a gagging order as part of the deal, believing she can make millions from chat shows and books.

Assuming that Sir Paul's reputation may be damaged in terms of sales, including his back catalogue, then it well be worth him sweetening the pot here and being generous with this point. We would suggest and extra £1 million or two might do the trick, but let's be generous again and make a total gagging order for an extra £5 million.

All this, of course would be on the strict condition that she, and no other connected third party, remains silent about their marriage and their time together and does not profit from any books, fictional or otherwise,, chat shows, TV, internet, films, documentaries, or other type of media yet to be invented, in any way or form.

In summation, an eCourt judgement on the known facts would rule that Paul McCartney should settle his divorce with Heather Mills for a cash sum settlement of £26 million; and then give them a good and secure house on top of that; an annual allowance for Heather and Beatrice in the region of £100,000; and provision for Beatrice in line with his status and her needs, in line with what his other siblings had.

In reality they went to court and Heather got a settlement of £24.3million, which included about £16million in cash and about £7million in assets and is inclusive of £500,000, referable to her overspending in the period of separation.

ESTIMATED COSTS:

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