Family Attorney
Courts Take A New Approach In Divorce Cases
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WILLIAM and Monica McBride were at an impasse. They had been separated for just over a year when a dispute arose over the custody of their 4-year-old daughter, Lauren. A custody trial date was scheduled. But the judge presiding over their case suggested that before the couple returned to court, they attend a voluntary program called Parent Education and Custody Effectiveness, or Peace program, which was begun as a pilot project last spring in the county’s Supreme Court and Family Courts. The program is a somewhat unusual marriage between the legal and mental-health professions. It consists of three classes taught by lawyers and psychologists and is designed to teach parents how to minimize the damaging effect of divorce and custody battles on their children. The McBrides decided to attend the course. Their lawyers’ fees were mounting, and a resolution of their differences about Lauren seemed distant. But soon after the first session, the couple began talking about compromise. A Settlement Was Reached “After the first class I knew right away there was no way I wanted to go back into the courtroom,” Mr. McBride said. “They steer you 150 percent away from the idea that I’m going to go in and win, to saying I’m going to go in and get the best results for my children.” After the program ended, the McBrides worked out a settlement. Their lawyers drew up the papers, and Lauren was spared a custody trial. “The classes really opened my eyes a lot,” Mrs. McBride said. “There you are in court battling for divorce or custody, and it’s costing you umpteen dollars. It made me realize that this was not what I wanted for my daughter. Bill and I both always wanted the best for her from the minute she came into this world, and making her choose would not be the best.” The message of the Peace program is not that parents should not divorce. Rather, it is designed to remind parents who are in the middle of an emotional trauma not to lose sight of the well-being of their children. “One of the most difficult aspects in dealing with custody cases from the point of view of every judge is that the parties themselves are so emotionally involved that they lose sight of the forest through the trees,” said Justice Sondra Miller of the Supreme Court’s appellate division, second department, in White Plains. “In believing that they are doing what is good for the child they can simply destroy the child’s life and health.” But the program is not without its critics. Some advocates of women’s rights believe that the course discriminates against the spouse who has less money, usually the woman. By looking at the custody issue in a vacuum without considering financial issues, the critics say, the program diverts attention from the real motivating factors of a divorce case. “The Peace program is seriously flawed because it cannot adequately address the emotional distress of divorce while ignoring the concerns caused by mounting unpaid bills, by sharp disparities in living circumstances between spouses and by dwindling – or disappearing – marital assets,” said Rita W. Warner, a matrimonial lawyer in Manhattan and the co-founder of the New York State Coalition on Women’s Legislative Issues. More : query.nytimes.com |
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