Tim and Kelly Weiss have been together for 8 years. The main reason for their breakup is that Tim went to Iraq with the marine corp and now suffers from anger issues and PTSD. Kelly states that she walks on eggshells around the house at all times. She says that if she gets a smudge on the cabinet or if she doesn’t put the dishes away correctly Tim will scream at her. She doesn’t want to live the rest of her life feeling hated.

Vikki arrives in Chicago to start the consultation with the Weisses and learns that issue number one is Kelly’s shoe collection. She has a vast assortment of Louboutin’s and Saint Laurents that she estimates at about $25,000. Tim claims that he bought them for his wife as “I’m sorry I suck as a husband” gift and he’s entitled to some of the value.
Issue number two is Tim’s samurai sword collection. They were purchased on the couple’s travels throughout Europe and are World War II era swords. Tim thinks they look cool and would like to keep them. Kelly doesn’t really want the swords but she claims that if he wants ½ the shoe collection value, then she wants ½ the sword collections value.
The last issues are linked. One being the house that the couple purchased for $400,000. They have about $130,000 in equity and it’s a rental property right now. The second is Tim’s pension from being a soldier. The amount that Kelly is owed from the pension is about equal to the equity in the house. Tim thinks that Kelly should take the house and all of the equity that they have in it. In exchange he gets his entire pension including the 50% of the years they were together that she is entitled to. Kelly believes that she stood by him through a lot of difficult times during his career and deserves her share of both the house and the pension.

The Millea brothers pop in next with the appraisal of the disputed items. They take a look at the swords first. In their examinations they see that one of them is a military issue so they suspect it’s not worth a lot. However, one of the blades is signed and may be priceless.
Moving on to the shoe collection, the Millea brothers break the news that just because you paid $25K for the shoes, that’s not what you are going to get out of it. What counts in divorce proceedings is fair market value. If you were to liquidate it, what would you get.
The brothers head back to Jersey to meet up with Vikki and discuss the results of their appraisal meeting. They conclude that the shoe collection is worth $4500 by comparing the style and condition to ones selling online. The swords weren’t in perfect condition but they were old, from the mid 19th century to 20th century. The value is determined to be around $4000.

The final stage is the mediation session with Vikki. After making the couple take calming breaths in and out, she tells them that the shoe collection isn’t worth much. She’s going to give them to Kelly without giving Tim a credit for them. She explains that because they were “oops I messed up” gifts, Kelly deserves the entire value to make up for his bad behavior. Vikki moves on to the sword collection and is happy to reveal that their value has gone up tremendously. Tim gets the swords, but Kelly gets a credit for their value, about $2000. She explains that because they bought them as a couple both parties own them.
Finally we get to the house and pension. Because the values are about equal, Vikki deals with them together. She decides that Kelly should get 100% of the equity in the house in order to get her back on her feet. Tim will receive 100% of his pension because he is the one risking his life and earning the money for it.
Vikki surprises both Tim and Kelly when she announces that there is one more caveat. She is recommending that Tim lists Kelly as the sole beneficiary of the pension if something were to happen to him. Vikki explains that since Tim admits he’s the main reason that the marriage didn’t work he owes it to Kelly. He amazingly agrees with Vikki.
In the end both Tim and Kelly decide that they want to end the marriage amicably and they agree with the choices that Vikki has made.