Legal experts spoke to The Sun after the 45-year-old musician failed to appear for his November 16 deposition.
‘Avoiding a deposition in litigation is taken very seriously by the judge, especially if it is a repeat offense,’ said Rachel Fiset, managing partner of Zweiback, Fiset & Zalduendo LLP.
West, who is now legally known as Ye, will have another court appearance on November 29 before a two-day trial on December 14.
If the disgraced designer does not appear again, Kim, 42, may be one step closer to gaining full custody of North, nine, Saint, six, Chicago, four, and Psalm, three.
‘If Kanye refuses to show up to his deposition, the Judge could sanction him monetarily, make him pay counsel fees, and if it is an egregious enough discovery vio.lation, the judge may be able to bar him from putting on a case at trial,’ family law attorney Lexie Rigden told the outlet.
She warned, ‘For two very wealthy people who do not need each other’s money, the custody issues will be most important.’
‘In most divorce cases, the parties are able to work out some of the issues,’ said Rigden. However, given his behavior and apparent unreasonableness, everything could be in dispute, from custody to asset distribution.’
Recognizing the former couple’s extreme wealth, she stated, ‘Custody issues will be most important for two very wealthy people who do not need each other’s money.’
‘His disparaging posts about Kim and her family in the media, and his nonsensical proposals, including that the children attend two different schools at the same time, are going to likely be used to show that he cannot reasonably co-parent and does not have the children’s best interests in mind,’ the lawyer said of the Yeezy creator.
Fiset clarified, ‘After Kanye skipped this deposition, they’ve given him one more date to appear.
‘If he doesn’t, he may face sanctions during their upcoming trial, such as a fine or a monetary award to Ms. Kardashian, and/or he may have the fa.cts which they were trying to uncover during the deposition change into admissions against him.
‘If he is trying to avoid giving information that would hurt his case by skipping a deposition, a judge might automatically determine that the bad information is a fa.ct inside of the trial, because he was uncooperative.’
‘In severe cases, it can be contempt, which can be civil or cri.minal depending on the judge,’ the lawyer continued.
‘Overall, this may be detrimental to his case. In the most serious case, the judge may rule against him, resulting in a lower custody award and a less favorable monetary disposition.
‘However, it is more likely that the judge will simply decide that the fa.cts Kim Kardashian alleges are true and will not allow him to defend himself.’
After seven years of marriage, the former couple is negotiating how to divide their more than $2 billion in combined assets.
The Blast reported last month that West’s lawyer had filed a ‘declaration of disclosure,’ indicating that the case was nearing its conclusion.
According to the documents, Kanye has given his estranged wife’s legal team all of his financial information and has reached an agreement with her on how to divide their finances and property.
Kardashian is represented by celebrity divorce lawyer Laura Wasser, while Ye is represented by his sixth lawyer, Nicholas Salick.
‘We’ve been planning this for a long time,’ Wasser previously told Judge Steve Cochran.