Last Friday, a Greensboro jury awarded a wife a $9 million dollar judgment against another woman for the wife’s claims of alienation of affection, criminal conversation, and intentionally or recklessly causing severe emotional distress. These claims are ones that a spouse can bring against a girlfriend/boyfriend of their spouse on the basis that the third party destroyed the marriage, had sex with their spouse, etc.

With news like this, I am often asked by clients about their ability to pursue the same claims and “make the other person pay,” so I wanted to stop an analyze this verdict for a moment. The wife won a judgment for $9 million. The alleged girlfriend did not appear at the trial, so I’m estimating that the wife’s attorney’s fees were a little less than normal; however, the wife still probably paid between $10,000 and $5,000 in legal fees to get this piece of paper. I mean that’s all a judgment is–a piece of paper. Now the wife has to go find assets of the lady, who is no longer a resident of North Carolina.

In one article the alleged girlfriend stated that the verdict was “hysterical.” I don’t know a thing about the case, but I’m guessing the girlfriend has little to no assets to actually execute on so Wife can get ANY money. The best part . . . the girlfriend now indicates that she is going to appeal. Wife is likely going to have to spend another $5000-$10,000 to defend the appeal.

With this information, does the verdict really seem like much of a win? Certainly doesn’t appear to have any financial gain for the wife.

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