Back in May, Mel Gibson and his ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva purportedly signed a mediation agreement related to the custody and support of their young daughter Lucia as well as other unresolved matters (believed to be domestic violence and extortion allegations between the two).

Grigorieva’s lawyers now plan to argue that the agreement is unenforceable because it was illegal, allegedly involving the destruction of evidence.

TMZ.com obtained what is purported to be the Gibson-Grigorieva agreement. In the document, Gibson agreed to put Lucia’s and Oksana’s current home in trust for Lucia, to name Lucia the beneficiary of a $2 million life insurance policy, to put approximately $1 million in trust for Lucia over the next 20 years, to pay an additional $4,000 a month in child support, to put $200,000 in a 529 college savings plan for Lucia and to pay for all of Lucia’s schooling and college tuition and to pay bequeath at least $4.3 million to a trust for Lucia upon his death.

He further agreed to pay Oksana $10,000 a month for the next 18 years, to pay Oksana a total of $1.1 million at five year increments over 15 years, to have a $1 million life insurance policy payable to Oksana upon his death, and to pay her $1 million upon the turning over of all “evidence” (quotation marks in the original).

The agreement goes on to state that the “evidence” will be destroyed in a manner agreed upon by the two of them. Based on TMZ’s “sources”, it seems that Gibson’s attorneys will argue that there is no mention or suggestion in the agreement that the “evidence” is evidence of a crime. The words “domestic violence” or “prosecution” were supposedly never mentioned in the mediation.

Presumably, “evidence” refers to tapes of arguments between the parties and/or their emails. Some of these have previously been leaked and seem to imply that there was a violent incident; others merely display Gibson’s anger and offensive commentary (which are arguably damaging to his public persona).

Another big topic in the agreement is Oksana’s consent to amend a pre-existing trust to exclude Lucia and her acknowledgment that any other trusts created during Gibson’s marriage to ex-wife Robyn Gibson were intended to benefit only the children of that marriage. TMZ suggests that the inclusion of Lucia in those trusts creates not only estate planning and business problems but also has potential negative tax implications.

One portion of the agreement memo which concerns me but hasn’t been mentioned in the mainstream media as problematic is the portion related to future modification of the child support amounts. The agreement appears to have been that, if Oksana requests a child support modification (or requests any additional money from Gibson for any reason) at any time in the next five years, the new support amount will be $5,000 a month.

I’m the first to admit that this section is a bit confusing – it is referencing merely modification of the $4,000 child support payments or are other payments under the “Lucia” category lumped in here? It is important to note that clauses which attempt to make child support agreements non-modifiable or agreements which attempt to set future support amounts are generally unenforceable. The court will always retain jurisdiction to modify child support orders in order to meet the best interests of the child – even if the parents have previously agreed otherwise. (We never know what the future holds and cannot speculate now as to what might be in the child’s best interests at a future date.)

We’ll keep an eye on this to see how it plays out as Grigorieva continues to push for the agreement to be ruled unenforceable and for a larger child support order.

Library Topics: mediation, custody, child support, domestic violence, modification of child support

See Also:

• Mel Gibson, Ex-Girlfriend Now Fighting in Court
• Oksana Grigorieva Hires Big Gun Family Law Attorney