After obtaining foreign residency, they can in most cases file for divorce after six months, bypassing Italy's mandatory three-year legal separation.
HuffPost found that most of the cases filed by the Hoffman firm purportedly on behalf of clients lacked the most basic elements of a valid legal filing -- and that almost all had been tossed out of court by irate judges or withdrawn by the firm itself.
While most accounting fraud cases filed by the S.E.C. come months or even years after inaccurate accounting is disclosed, the public had virtually no idea of the scope or magnitude of the case before charges were filed yesterday.
While the criminal proceedings are finished, and most of the cases filed against Ms. Grubman, a Manhattan publicist, have been quietly settled out of court, 2 of the 16 bystanders injured that evening are still suing, seeking compensatory damages as well as multimillion-dollar punitive claims.
In response to more than 40 lawsuits, the company filed a brief last Thursday asking to consolidate most of the cases filed in federal and state courts in New York and California against the company, its directors and underwriters and Nasdaq into one proceeding.
Most cases were filed as "resistance followed by death" which shields the perpetrators from civilian courts.
Martens said most cases were filed by players, though teams have also used F.A.T. against players who have failed to honor their contracts.
In terms of actual numbers, most cases are filed against Muslims - but groups like Christians and Ahmadis, a very small proportion of Pakistan's population, account for a disproportionately high percentage of cases.
The indigent, while not precisely defined, account for most of the 230,000 Family Court cases filed in New York City each year.
She also said that in 2008 the section that handles employment discrimination cases filed the most lawsuits in its history.
