Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's divorce settlement ran into an impasse earlier this month. Jolie requested that Judge John W. Uderkirk, the private judge (open in new tab) overseeing the case, dismiss the case for failure to disclose other matters she was working on with Pitt's attorney, Ann C. Kiley. Pitt's lawyers then fired back, as reported by People (opens in new tab), calling the request for dismissal "a thinly veiled attempt by Jolly to delay a ruling on the custody issue that has been dragging on in this case."

According to the Associated Press, Jolie said in papers filed last Monday that Uderkirk, who also married the two actors in 2014, "failed to disclose instances showing an ongoing repetitive relationship between the judge and respondent's attorney." She further claimed that she was "not even given the opportunity to express concern or object to the ever-increasing business relationship between Judge Uderkirk and (Pitt's) attorney."

The following Thursday, Pitt's lawyers filed documents stating that she "accepted new agreements with opposing counsel" but that these agreements were "fully disclosed to Jolley." Pitt further claimed that Jolie "has never before objected to (Uderkirk's) continued involvement in these proceedings." He also noted that, as People reported, Uderkirk had disclosed past opportunities to work with both Pitt and Jolie's attorneys, adding that Jolie and her attorney had requested an extension of Uderkirk's work on the divorce proceedings on three separate occasions.

"Unfortunately, those most hurt by Jolie's transparent gamesmanship are the parties' children, who continue to be deprived of final resolution of custody issues," Pitt's attorney wrote in a court filing.

In a statement to People, Jolie's attorney Samantha Bray DeJean said the filing is "an attempt to obstruct or influence Judge Uderkirk's response" and that "the delay in these proceedings is their attempt to create a special exception not granted for their clients' benefit 's zealous attempts to create a special exception that is not granted for the benefit of their clients," he added.

In response, an anonymous source allegedly "close to Pitt" told the magazine, "This is the judge who married them, someone her team knows well and whom her team actually introduced to the couple. Her lawyer has also worked with him. So the only excuse for their allegations is that they knew her team was likely to lose and needed to buy time by changing the judge in the fourth quarter."