This is CRAZY!
The judge assigned to Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck‘s divorce has a MAJOR conflict of interest — even though he’s insisting it won’t be a problem! But if we were J.Lo, we’d be FUMING right now!!!
According to TMZ on Wednesday, Judge Bradley S. Phillips was put on the Bennifer case. He’s a perfectly good, veteran judge who certainly has tons of experience with the law. But the only problem is that his son-in-law Strand Conover is an agent for Ben AND Jennifer’s other ex Alex Rodriguez!
In court documents, Phillips disclosed his connection to the partner and agent at WME, a talent agency that reps BOTH Ben and Alex. And Strand isn’t just a member of the same agency – he’s their personal agent!
Related: Ben Was With Kick Kennedy In 2020 — Until He Chose To Date Ana de Armas!
Strand is on Ben’s team, and through his work with the Air director has gotten to know the pop star. But he also oddly reps A-Rod as a brand-partnership agent, too! So, he’s met J.Lo through business deals via her former fiancé, as well. Thus, the judge’s son-in-law knows both halves of Bennifer really well — even though he has never repped the Hustlers alum personally.
Despite this, Phillips is arguing that it won’t be an issue and that he’ll still be able to conduct a fair and impartial case because he hasn’t spoken to his son-in-law about Bennifer or their divorce and promised he wouldn’t as the legal matter plays out. But is that enough to make this fair?!
We suppose it’s good that he hasn’t spoken about the divorce. But are we really supposed to believe he hasn’t heard ANYTHING about Ben and Jen throughout the years? Or that he won’t possibly subconsciously take his son-in-law’s side (and thus, Ben’s side)?!?!
It sounds like Strand has worked really closely with Jennifer’s exes for a long time, too. We’d be shocked if the agent NEVER spoke about them! And if he did share stories, it would be natural for them to be skewed in favor of the men, given all their business ties. So, can the judge really say that he hasn’t been influenced?! It’s kind of shocking!
As Perezcious readers know, the Let’s Get Loud singer finally filed for divorce from her hubby earlier this month after weeks of estrangement amid split rumors. She cited their date of separation as April 26, and didn’t state whether or not they had a prenup. TMZ sources have insisted that they didn’t sign anything, which means they could now be looking at a really nasty legal fight as they separate their community property — which includes income from their many movies and even possibly Ben’s stake in his production company!
To think that they have this big battle ahead of them and the person overseeing everything has such close ties to Ben?? Even at its most base level, that simply suggests the possibility of unfairness, right?! We wonder if J.Lo will try to fight this… If we were her, we’d probably try!
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[Image via MEGA/WENN & Jennifer Hudson Show/YouTube]
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