[fabsroman]

He wouldn't have had to give half of everything he owned for a divorce. What he would have had to give up was his right to anything in Terry's estate should he divorce her (i.e., a right to the million dollar trust). He would also have had to give up his position as Terri's guardian because the guardian would have to work out the divorce issue. I am sure that the Schindlers would have let him keep all of the marital property in lieu of getting any share of the trust money. The best way this could have gone down to find out everybodies motive would have been for Michael to ask for a divorce two or three years after the malpractice settlement, have the Schindlers okay the divorce, and then see what the Schindlers would have done with Terri given that they would inherit the million dollars upon Terri's passing.

Again, there are a lot of facts missing in this one and I don't know that anybody can put together all the facts over the 15 years, not even the Schindlers and Schiavo.

I do encourage everybody to prepare the necessary documents so that their loved ones will be spared any hardship should something tragic happen. Key word is tragic because none of us ever plan on dying. I had two 30 something clients with children almost pass away, one from a car accident and the other from a rare nervous system disease, and neither of them had the proper documents in place. That was my reason for sending the newletter out. Even though this is a terrible thing that happened to Terri, hopefully it will spur some public awareness on this issue.