WASHINGTON: As the back-and-forth continues in Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s heated custody case, lawyers of the ‘Fury’ actor have requested a review, after an appeals court effectively revoked his joint custody in July. According to E! News, Pitt scored a win in May when he was tentatively granted joint custody of their five minor children. The order, however, came from Judge John Ouderkirk, who officiated the couple’s wedding seven years ago. This led Jolie to try to discount the judge’s ruling; her team said the judge “exhibited bias.” A California appeals court in July approved her request to disqualify the judge.
Ouderkirk failed to “disclose multiple professional, business and financial relationships, ongoing during the course of the matter, with Pitt’s counsel and their law firms,” according to Jolie’s legal team. As a result, Jolie retained full-time custody of their kids, while Pitt maintained only visitation rights. So, the ‘Moneyball’ actor has now responded in court, filing a petition with the California Supreme Court to review the case, which E! News obtained on September 1.
The petition read, “The Court of Appeal effectively upended the constitutionally authorized temporary judging system in California and generated widespread confusion, uncertainty, and instability for judges, litigants, and the California judicial system as a whole.”
Pitt’s camp has accused Jolie of waiting three and a half years to seek disqualification of Judge Ouderkirk, even though she was allegedly “made aware of Judge Ouderkirk’s significant professional history with Pitt’s counsel from the very start.”