Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes: Inside the divorce filing
(CBS News) When Katie Holmes filed for divorce from Tom Cruise last week, she not only did it New York, but she also asked for sole legal custody and "primary residential custody" of 6-year-old Suri, according to reports.
Why New York?
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"New York is more apt to give sole custody than other jurisdictions," Manhattan-based divorce lawyer Joshua Forman told CBSNews.com. "New York doesn't love joint custody. If you can't agree on joint custody, then they don't usually like to impose it upon you."
Holmes has been trying to establish residency in New York - for the sole purpose of the divorce, reports TMZ.
"What I know from longtime practice is when you have somebody make what I call a move, a tactical move filing in another state, there will be an attempt to gain an advantage versus saying let's just figure this out with the accountants and get it gone," divorce lawyer Michael Kelly told the Associated Press.
Still, it may have also been easier to file in New York, as it's where Holmes and Suri currently call home.
But what are the chances Holmes will be able to get sole custody of the couple's daughter? It's hard to say because it depends on a series of factors.
In the end, sometimes the decision comes down to who's the more available parent, or who's the overall "better parent," Forman said.
Holmes, 33, appears, at least from paparazzi photographs, to be the more constant parent in Suri's life.
"The court will also look at -- if he [Cruise] travels a lot more for work that she [Holmes] does, said Forman, a partner at Chemtob Moss Forman & Talbert, LLP. "The court looks at who will be more of the mainstay in the child's life."
Now there's talk that Cruise will file in Los Angeles, a familiar place for the actor, who's been divorced twice before there - first to Mimi Rogers, and then to Nicole Kidman.
"He'd rather be in his home court advantage," Forman said.
One thing is for sure, though, the 49-year-old "Rock of Ages" star seems to want the divorce proceedings to go as smoothly as possible.
"I would hope that it's not a contentious matter. I know Tom is not a particularly contentious person," his attorney Bert Fields told the Los Angeles Times.
"I can't imagine that he thinks it would be good for his career to have a long drawn-out fight," Forman added about the couple's divorce after five years of marriage.
When asked whether there was a prenuptial agreement, Cruise's attorney told the Los Angeles Times, he couldn't comment, but that "it will all come out."
