And you thought you've had a couple bad break-ups in your day. It's now being reported that a former husband and wife have been involved in various stages of divorce proceedings for a whopping seventeen years. That's seven more years than they were actually married.

Christo Lassiter, 56, and his former wife Sharlene Boltz, 52, have been feuding in court since 1996. Unsurprisingly, both are lawyers (Lassiter teaches at the University of Cincinnatti and Boltz at Northern Kenutcky University), and their ongoing feud has ruffled more than a few feathers among their judicial peers.

"I am really shocked, because when I was in law school my professors were outstanding. They never would have told me that behaving the way you all have, both of you, over the past 20 years, is acceptable behavior," Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Leslie Ghiz observed at a hearing in July.

Both of the lawyers have represented themselves throughout the divorce and the twenty-eight cases that followed from it.  Though the divorce itself was satisfied after a (relative to the situation, modest) five years, they have continued to take one another court, reaching the Ohio Supreme Court several times. Though the fight was originally focused on custody, now that their children are 20 and 17, the battle has switched over to monetary concerns.

"This court has not seen many domestic relations cases more contentious and acrimonious ... than this case. The parties, who are both law professors and who ought to know better, engaged in thoroughly inappropriate behavior that was detrimental to the resolution of their case and to the welfare of their children for which both claimed to be primarily concerned," wrote the Ohio 1st District Court of Appeals in 2002.

That's right, 2002. As in eleven years ago. As in the two lawyers fought for six years, were finally admonished for their actions by a court, and then proceeded to continue fighting for over a decade more. Other lawyers have stated similar disbelief at how long the two have gone at it, with at least one refusing to comment for fear of being sued by either of the battling divorcees.

"That's a highly contentious, highly litigated case," said local domestic relations attorney Trista Portales Goldberg. "You don't see (large numbers of) entries like that."

What's worse, the fallout from the divorce is still not over just yet. The next hearing between Lassiter and Boltz is scheduled for Sept. 6th, and chances are, it won't be the last.