In Divorce Attorney Shin, Ae-ran decides to divorce her husband after being subjected to abuse by his mother for years. Sung-han takes the case, even though he knows it will not be easy to get her what she wants.
Sung-han’s building’s cleaning lady, Ae-ran, hesitantly approaches him to find out the cost of getting a divorce. She leaves without telling him anything else but comes to meet him again when the situation at home gets out of hand.
Why does Ae-ran want to divorce her husband?
Ae-ran and her husband, Byeong-cheol, live with their two daughters. Ae-ran’s life is anything but easy, as she has to toil day and night to pay off the family’s mortgages. Apart from that, she also manages the building owned by her mother-in-law.
Her mother-in-law lives on the floor above theirs, but she is always found at her son’s house. She makes things harder for Ae-ran at home. She does not let her son help his wife with household chores.
On top of that, mentally abuses Ae-ran. Since the time Ae-ran got pregnant with Byeong-cheol’s child and got married to him, her mother-in-law, who believes that her son could have gotten a better wife, has made her life difficult every single day.
Ae-ran has been getting treated for depression for the past three years. She keeps asking Byeong-cheol to stand up to his mother for their children, but he never speaks up, as he believes his mother has also had a difficult life.
When his mother decides to move in with their family at the cost of his daughters’ convenience, it results in an argument.
His mother hits his younger daughter, despite Ae-ran’s warnings. Ae-ran, who has never even talked back to her mother-in-law, ends up hitting her because she cannot bear to see her daughters being treated the way she has been treated.
After this incident, she resolves to divorce her husband, but not without getting her share of the property.
Does Sung-han take the case?
Byeong-cheol owns a building that he transferred to his mother when his business was failing to save the building if the business went bankrupt. He did not inform Ae-ran about the transfer until it was done.
Hyeong-geun does not want Sung-han to take the case because it will not be easy to get Ae-ran her share as she has assaulted her mother-in-law.
However, Sung-han wants to learn more about it before anything else. Through Jeong-sik’s investigation, he finds out that Ae-ran’s mother-in-law is known to be a fussy woman, while Ae-ran has a good reputation.
Sung-han decides to take the case and tells Ae-ran that to prove that her husband is the real owner of the building and not her mother-in-law, he needs a transaction document or a notarized document signed by her husband and her mother-in-law.
Ae-ran tries to get the said documents and a recording that will prove that Byeong-cheol is the owner of the building from her mother-in-law’s house, but Byeong-cheol catches her there and tells her that it is not there. Furthermore, she finds out that her mother-in-law is planning to sue her for hitting her.
Sung-han then forms a strategy and tells Ae-ran that they will lie in court and say that she never hit her. They will sue her mother-in-law for defamation, claiming that she has been spreading rumors about Ae-ran hitting her.
When Byeong-cheol comes to know about this, he feels betrayed by the woman he has trusted all his life. Sung-han makes him realize that Ae-ran feels the same, as he is lying about the building that they both bought together.
Does Ae-ran win the case?
During their divorce mediation, Byeong-cheol’s lawyer, Choi Jun, argues that Byeong-cheol gifted the building to his mother, while Sung-han argues that he was in no position to give such a gift at that time. Furthermore, the building was protected by Ae-ran’s sacrifices.
When the argument seems to be going nowhere, Ae-ran truthfully confesses that she indeed hit her mother-in-law. Sung-han then asks Byeong-cheol if he truly thinks that the building solely belongs to him.
Byeong-cheol also decides to be honest and presents proof that the building was only temporarily transferred to his mother’s name, which means that Ae-ran will now get her share. As Ae-ran breaks down, Byeong-cheol finally acknowledges that she has been through a lot.
Ae-ran wins the case, but it turns out that all this was planned by Sung-han to get Byeong-cheol to confess the truth in court; they were never going to file a defamation lawsuit.
Sung-han put his trust in Byeong-cheol’s honesty because he still saw romance between him and Ae-ran. It is later revealed that Ae-ran withdrew the lawsuit because the couple decided not to get divorced.
Byeong-cheol finally spoke in Ae-ran’s favor and made his mother realize how wrong she has been all this while. His mother recognizes Ae-ran’s suffering, and the family makes up.
Also Read: Lee Seo-jin: Divorce Attorney Shin character explained
