Till $249 do us part: 'If you and your spouse hate each other like poison and want to get out of the hellhole you call a marriage, you've come to the right place.' So begins a mild-mannered-looking lawyer in a TV advertisement that the Florida Bar Association has banned for including language that promises a particular result, which is not allowed in legal services advertising - English lawyers may be surprised and reassured to learn that any restrictions do exist in the US. Steven Miller of DivorceEZ offers a flat-fee, no-frills divorce service in non-contested cases (starting at $249 if no children are involved) and says his 'tongue-in-cheek jab at the process' is aimed at informing people about 'an alternative to greedy, billable-hour lawyers'. The advert, which Mr Miller has put on his website (www.divorceez.com), is now a favourite on YouTube - it is just a shame for him that most of its users are too young to need his services.With the great and good of the Civil Justice Council continuing to wrestle with the vexed issue of how litigation can be funded in England and Wales, news arrives of a rather innovative approach being adopted on the other side of the Atlantic. Deborah Palfrey, who used to own an escort service, has apparently sold her list of clients - and the phone records to back it up - to a leading news organisation to help pay for her defence in a racketeering trial. The police say Ms Palfrey was running a prostitution ring, something she denies, while also looking to get her assets back from the authorities.


Some 10,000 names are said to be on the list, including high-profile figures in Washington. Ms Palfrey's lawyer has denied she is effectively blackmailing her clients. 'She has had 13 years to blackmail people if that was what she wanted to do,' he is reported as saying. 'It is only now, when she finds herself indicted and facing significant prison time, that she has to resort to this.'