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Are Brad Pitt And Angelina Jolie Headed To Court To Fight For Custody Of Kids?

By Lindsay Cronin
Published on: 21:10 PST, Nov 10, 2016

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are facing a crossroads.

For the past several weeks, Brad Pitt and his family were in the midst of an investigation by the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services after claims where made that the 52-year-old actor had been verbally and physically abusive towards their oldest son, 15-year-old Maddox. However, on Wednesday, sources confirmed that the organization’s case had been closed because there were no findings of abuse.

While a temporary agreement between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie had given the 41-year-old actress primary physical custody of their children, they are now at odds over their future custody agreement and may be headed to court.

Following Brad Pitt’s request for joint physical custody of their kids, Maddox, 15, Pax, 12, Zahara, 11, Shiloh, 10, and twins Vivienne and Knox, eight, and Jolie’s request for sole physical custody, family law specialist Steve Mindel, who is not involved with Brad Pitt’s case, revealed their custody issues would likely be referred back to family court.

“The parties have to make a decision as to whether they’re going to pursue this in the public court system or whether or not they’re going to go to an alternative dispute resolution — either mediation, arbitration or a private judge program,” Mindel told People Magazine on November 10.

According to Mindel, the choice will likely depend on how private Brad Pitt and his estranged wife want to keep things. For instance, most court proceedings are public, but when it comes to mediation, the process is said to be highly confidential. Mediation would also encourage Brad Pitt to mutually agree to a custody arrangement with Jolie.

“One would think given Angelina and [Brad Pitt]’s privacy, their six children and the fact that they all have to live through all of the stuff that’s going to be published about this, they would want to do it in one of the more private settings,” Mindel said.

Brad Pitt’s wife filed for divorce on September 19 and requested sole physical custody of their kids with Pitt having visitation. Meanwhile, Brad Pitt waited until last week to file his response, in which he requested joint. However, due to the past investigation, Jolie has maintained sole custody since their split.

Brad Pitt “has been very unhappy with the arrangement,” a source told People Magazine in their new issue. “He loves his kids and wants to spend more time with them.”

Now that the investigation against him has been closed, Brad Pitt could have his agreement with Jolie changed, but according to criminal defense attorney Alaleh Kamran, who is also not involved with his case, he will have to continue to go by the terms of their temporary agreement for the time being “as a gesture to keep peace between the parties.”

Mindel agreed with Kamran’s statement, explaining that the supervisor who oversees his visits with his kids could prompt a positive case for Brad Pitt if called to testify.

“This person is a therapeutic monitor,” Mindel said. “This person could be very helpful to Brad in future litigation. You have to anticipate that if Brad is a good parent, he might want to have the monitor in place for another few weeks so he can develop more evidence about what good parenting skills he has.”

Kamran continued on, explaining that at this time, there’s no difference between Brad Pitt and his estranged wife and he should get everything that the mother does now that there are no dark clouds hanging over him.

[Featured Image by Robin Marchant/Getty Images]

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