Actor/TV personality David Hasselhoff is back in court with ex-wife Pamela Bach over unpaid legal fees. The couple split in late 2005; their divorce was final last year.

Bach’s former divorce attorney Gary Mitchell is apparently still owed about $88,000 for his work on the case. Although RadarOnline says “[n]ow Mitchell is going after Hasselhoff for payment”, that is actually inaccurate.

Mitchell has filed and served several lien notices – which just serve to put Hasselhoff on notice that any money he is required to pay to Bach is subject to Mitchell’s liens for unpaid bills. Mitchell isn’t asking that Hasselhoff pay the bills out of his own funds, just that the money to be paid to Bach be, instead, applied to Bach’s outstanding balance with Mitchell’s office. (Hasselhoff wouldn’t pay out any additional money – just the original $1 million judgment, only now some of it would go to Mitchell directly.)

Hasselhoff, through his attorneys at Freid and Goldsman, has advised the court that he is ready to pay what he owes Bach and is willing to provide funds to Mitchell instead of Bach if Mitchell is legally entitled to receive those funds. The funds Hasselhoff is supposed to pay Bach as part of the final divorce judgment have been put into an attorney trust account pending some court determination as to who should legally collect.

Attorney’s liens on judgments are very common, especially in cases in which a party hires and fires multiple attorneys. Rather than go through futile attempts to later collect their bill, the attorney files a lien against any divorce judgment in hopes of getting paid out of equalization payments required in the division of marital property.

While family courts can, and often do, order one party to pay the other’s legal fees, that is not the case here. Shame on RadarOnline for flubbing their report.

Also See:

• David Hasselhoff Divorce Finalized