With the clock ticking down to a court date in Arkansas, Hunter Biden this week reached a settlement in a paternity and child support lawsuit — “a very fair settlement, reached in good faith, that also protects both sides” — but the case isn’t over yet, an attorney for the child’s mother tells PEOPLE.
Clint Lancaster, who is representing Lunden Roberts in her suit against Biden over the young child they share, says that with a temporary settlement now reached, what remains is to obtain sufficient information about Biden’s finances to finalize child support.
The next hearing in the case is set for mid-March.
“We are in the public position because Hunter Biden did not resolve the case when he had the opportunity to do so, before the case ever became public,” Lancaster tells PEOPLE now.
Kris Connor/WireImage
Roberts, who is in her twenties and first met Hunter in the Washington, D.C. area, sued Hunter for paternity and child support.
While he denied her complaint, saying she and Roberts had not even had sex, a DNA test last fall confirmed he was actually the father.
According to Roberts’ suit, she and Biden were in a relationship and had a child in August 2018.
Lancaster, her attorney, says that while there have been periodic settlement discussions since the case began last summer, talks intensified about a week ago. Hunter had been ordered to appear in person in Independence County on Wednesday to defend himself from Roberts’ motions asking that he be held in contempt. Her lawyers said he had failed to provide all the necessary personal and financial documentation to settle child support, which he denied.
With the temporary settlement, Wednesday’s court hearing was canceled; and the judge said Hunter could avoid responding to the contempt allegations at the next hearing, in March, if he provided the required information to the court.
“The closer it gets to an actual court date, the more likely it is to settle,” Lancaster explains.
“That’s not common for a child support case to become this complex,” Lancaster told PEOPLE earlier this month. “It’s usually: Are you the child’s parent? Okay — how much are you going to pay for your kid? That’s not where we’re at. I can only speculate as to the reason why.”
“There’s a lot of different ways that a person could have approached the situation,” Lancaster said then. “Hunter Biden’s approach is not one of a great willingness to resolve these issues.”
The court documents in the suit outline the disputes between Hunter and Roberts, including Hunter’s concern that his personal and financial information could become public.
The two sides sharply disagreed on whether Hunter’s intransigence was a stalling tactic — verging on contempt — or a reflection of his cautionafter being the target ofall manner of speculation, innuendo and insult.
Hunter Biden.Kris Connor/WireImage
Lancaster declined to comment on what relationship Hunter has with Roberts and their child now, if any.
“She still wants to be a private person,” he says. “She’s a mom raising a kid. She doesn’t need well-wishers. She has turned down people who wanted to do GoFundMes to help pay for this or pay for anything. She’s turned down … interviews.”
Hunter has not publicly addressed the lawsuit. According to a profile inThe New Yorkerlast year, he claimed he never had sex with Roberts.
A spokesman for him has not commented to PEOPLE on the suit. His attorney said he wouldn’t comment beyond what was publicly available in the court record.
Speaking with PEOPLE, Lancaster also pushed back on the idea that the case was advanced for political aims, given that Vice President Biden is seeking to challenge President Donald Trump in November’s election.
Lancaster acknowledges he’s personally conservative but says, as he has all along, that this suit is nothing more than what it appears.
“I represent a woman who needs child support,” he says. “And I’m a lawyer who’s going to get it for her, and that’s it.”
source: people.com
