Fees in Bitter Family Dispute Prompt Judge's Call for Litigation Budget

A family law judge is recommending a litigation budget to detail all costs in an acrimonious family dispute gearing to rack up more than a million dollars in attorney fees and costs.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge David Miller on Monday said he was "about a nanosecond away" from requiring attorneys on both sides to draw up budgets for their clients in a case pitting a millionaire's adult children against his third wife.

"If your clients knew they were going to be $2 million light … they might reconsider the wisdom of this case," Miller said toward the end of a contentious hearing to annul the marriage of Jose Lopez and Mercy Flores, who married in 2014. "I could easily see this costing $1 million."

Lopez's children suggest Flores manipulated their elderly father, an Alzheimer's patient more than 20 years her senior, into marriage after allegedly having a sexual relationship with his son. They won the right to serve as guardians of his estate, estimated to be worth more than $30 million.

The ongoing case spawned motions for sanctions against the guardians' attorneys and a reported criminal investigation against Lopez's longtime friend and trustee, Ed Guttenmacher.

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Fees in Bitter Family Dispute Prompt Judge's Call for Litigation Budget