Angelina Jolie's lawyer issues statement amid heated dispute over Brad Pitt divorce judge

Angelina Jolie's lawyer has insisted the actress is seeking a fair trial based on facts amid her dispute with the judge presiding over her divorce with Brad Pitt.

The Hollywood couple announced their separation back in 2016, and the actors officially became single again in April 2019 after obtaining a bifurcated judgment - ending their marriage but giving them time to reach on a financial settlement and custody agreement of their six kids.

While they hired a private court official to handle the ongoing proceedings, earlier this month the Maleficent star asked for Judge John W. Ouderkirk to be removed from their case, citing issues regarding his other business engagements with one of Pitt's attorneys, Anne C. Kiley.

According to Pitt, the pair hired Judge John W. Ouderkirk has, "a well-documented history with the parties to this proceeding their counsel, including, without limitation, being hand-selected by Jolie to preside over the couple's nuptials in 2014."

But in a statement from Jolie's lawyer Samantha Bley DeJean, Jolie: “has never objected to (their judge's) continued involvement in this proceeding until now.”

“All my client is asking for is a fair trial based on facts, with no special favours extended to either side,” she posited in a statement to Us Weekly.

“The only way litigants can trust the process is for everyone involved to ensure that there’s transparency and impartiality,” she added.

Slamming Jolie for her latest move in the four-year-long proceedings, Pitt's filing called the attempt to have the judge removed "an abrupt cry of judicial bias (that) reeks of bad faith and desperation," according to the New York Post's gossip column Page Six.