In seemingly stark contrast to the argumentative back-and-forth that played out in the early days of Kevin Costner and Christine Baumgartner’s divorce proceedings, the former couple has sparked relatively few headlines of late, at least following the Oscar winner’s big custody payment win. It appears as if the arguments over housing are over, with the handbag designer currently settled in a pricey four-bedroom home in Montecito with their three kids, but that doesn’t mean all the financially focused conflicts are over. She’s apparently trying to get Costner to foot the massive bill from her legal team, which earned quite the biting response from the Yellowstone actor’s lawyer.
Baumgartner & Co. reportedly put in a request to the Los Angeles judge presiding over their case, asking for Costner to be made responsible for paying out upwards of $885,000 for legal fees that she claims are needed to argue the lone issue of whether her waiver of spousal support from their prenuptial agreement is enforceable. Anyone thinking that sounds exorbitant has that opinion in common with the Dance with Wolves director’s divorce attorney Laura Wasser, who shared the blunt response below with TMZ:
[The request is] nothing short of outrageous.
Laura Wasser —who was also the go-to legal counsel sought out by Britney Spears, Kim Kardashian, Johnny Depp and many other celebs in their respective divorces — called out the questionable math involved with seeking out nearly $900K for working on a minor prenup issue. Though Baumgartner’s team claims that’s what it would take for them to bring their case to life, Wasser is not so convinced.
Costner’s lawyer suggested that if that request is based on hourly fees, it would require Christine Baumgartner’s team to put in 1,106 hours of work. That equals about 46 days of straight working, or 138 separate 8-hour work days. Certainly there are some legal issues that would take that much time or longer to work out, but this particular issue does not seem to square out.
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What’s more, Wasser pointed out that the judge in the case has already ruled on the matter of the prenup being enforceable, so Baumgartner’s lawyers may be barking up a moot tree with their attempts to argue part of it in their client’s favor. And then there are the claims that Costner has already shelled out a sizeable amount of money that’s already gone to his ex’s attorneys.
Wasser says Costner previously shelled out something around $300,000 to foot legal fees, and used an additional $105K to feed her legal team. Not to mention the other money he’s supplied to pay for her housing and other goods and services following their initial divorce filing.
It all adds up, too, because if Baumgartner were to go forward with challenging the prenup, only to lose, then she would be responsible for having to pay back more than $1 million that she’s received, while also being responsible for paying Wasser and her team’s fees.