Actor Dylan McDermott of TV’s “The Practice” filed for divorce from wife Shiva Rose McDermott last Friday in Los Angeles. The McDermotts separated last spring after 12 years of marriage. They have two daughters.

Interestingly, McDermott filed the petition in propria persona (also referred to as pro per or pro se), which means that he is representing himself in the legal action – and is not using an attorney. Now, he played an attorney on TV for a long time – but that doesn’t exactly give him expertise in the real-life family law field! Pro se divorces are not uncommon but are generally seen in situations where there are relatively few assets and low income. When divorcing spouses agree on all the terms of a divorce, a pro se filing is a way to save money.

But in McDermott’s situation, there are certainly substantial and complex assets to be divided. California is a community property state, meaning that marital property will be divided equally between the spouses – but only marital property (not everything). While the split percentages may be simple (50/50), figuring out what property is considered marital property is not so easy. They may also have to consider dividing future income derived from work completed during the marriage (residuals on re-runs of “The Practice” for example). Knowing all of this, it is curious that McDermott would choose to proceed without the assistance of an attorney. Most attorneys would advise strongly against this, even if the spouses have reached an agreement through mediation or collaboration.
McDermott has asked for joint legal custody and joint physical custody of the children – a 12 year old daughter and a 2 1/2 year old daughter. He has not asked that the court terminate its jurisdiction to award spousal support – so it looks like he anticipates paying alimony to his estranged wife. We’ll have to wait and see what type of response Shiva McDermott files before we can speculate further as to why McDermott is representing himself.