ET exclusively spoke with the Hollywood attorney on Tuesday.
Laura Wasser is providing insight into Sarah and Todd Palin's recent split.
On Tuesday, just a few days after Todd filed for divorce from Sarah after 31 years of marriage in an Alaska courthouse, ET exclusively spoke with the Hollywood power attorney, where she broke down everything we need to know about the divorce.
"There is always potential for a divorce to turn ugly in the public eye," says Wasser, who is also the founder and CEO of ItsOverEasy.com. "I don't know the Palin family, but it is my hope that they're able to prevent that from happening."
Below are four other things we've learned from Wasser about the Palin divorce.
1. The legal description for the cause of the split sounds "yuckier" than it actually is.
According to court documents obtained by ET last week, Todd cited the cause of his split from Sarah as an "incompatibility of temperament between the parties such that they find it impossible to live together as husband and wife."
Wasser tells ET that the complex wording basically means the same as "irreconcilable differences."
"That's just Alaska's way of saying it," she explains. "It sounds yuckier than irreconcilable differences, so they might want to think of changing that legislatively, but that's pretty much the same thing."
2. It was a mistake for Todd to use initials while filing the paperwork.
When Todd filed the paperwork, he used their initials, T.M.P. and S.L.P., in hopes of keeping the divorce a secret. According to Wasser, by doing that, the court probably paid even more attention to it, therefore the opposite of what he was attempting to make happen.
"I think it makes it more obvious when high-profile people use their initials because people are really looking through it to figure it out, what is," Wasser explains. "What we will try and do is, if the high-profile person has a different name, like a maiden name or a stage name, we can somehow get it through that way."
3. Todd filed for divorce on Sept. 6, the same day as his 55th birthday.
But was it a coincidence? "I think we're overthinking it," Wasser jokes. "There's no legal reason to do that. It might be that that was his gift to himself, to file on his birthday, but I don't know."
4. The 50/50 custody split is a good sign.
The couple's lakefront Alaska home is just one part of their reported $12 million fortune, most of which was generated by Sarah when she ran for vice president in 2008. Aside from property, the two also share five children together, Track, 30, Bristol, 28, Willow, 25, Piper, 18, and Trig, 11.
"The best course for any family that is going through this process is to do it amicably," Wasser says. "Work together and really try to keep it as low profile as possible, both out of the hands of attorneys who can stir things up out of the courts and out of the news."
"[Todd] has asked for everything to be joint," she adds. "It will be interesting to see if they opted in for community property. When they got married, remember, both parties were quite young."
Sarah and Todd were high school sweethearts and eloped in August 1988. The court documents reveal that Todd requested joint custody of Trig, as their other children are all legal adults. "It is in the best interest of the minor child that the parties have joint legal custody," the documents state, adding that Todd is also requesting "shared physical custody."
With regard to how the couple's possessions should be split amid the divorce, the documents state, "The material assets and debts should be divided equitably and fairly."
Hear more on the Palins in the video below.
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