Angelina Jolie has asked for the removal of the private judge who is overseeing her divorce from Brad Pitt over claims he has a business relationship with her ex-husband’s lawyer.
In a submission made on Monday (August 10) in Los Angeles Superior Court, Jolie requested that Judge John W Ouderkirk be disqualified from the case for four years after she first filed for divorce in 2016.
The actor claims that Ouderkirk “failed to disclose the cases that show the current, persistent, recurring client relationship” he had with Anne C Kiley, one of Pitt’s attorneys who has worked on multiple cases.
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The document also states that Kiley “had actively pleaded for the financial interests of Judge Ouderkirk in moving – over the opposition party’s opposition – to extend his appointment (and his ability to stay remunerated) in a high profile case.”
The independent has approached both Ouderkirk and Kiley for comment.
Claiming that private judges should be bound by the same rules as other judges when it comes to impartiality, the document states: “It does not matter if Judge Ouderkirk is in fact biased … all my clients ask for a fair trial based on facts, with no special benefits extended to either side. ”
Jolie and Pitt were together fourteen years, two of whom they were married, for the Maleficent actor filed for divorce in 2016.
The couple has six children together.
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