There Is No Predictability in Divorce

{2:18 minutes to read} At a recent conference, I sat in on an update on the law. The presenter, who was an attorney that was very knowledgeable about divorce law, was reviewing various cases and the legal lesson that the cases provided. And by the end of the session, I realized that there was simply no predictability in any of it.

For example, he discussed several cases involving spousal support that generated vastly different outcomes. In one case a husband who made $100,000 per year was required to pay support to his wife, while in another, where the husband made $120,000, he was not required to provide any support.

The same principle was true for Equitable Distribution. In one case, the husband put down $10,000 to buy a house and the court gave him the money back when the couple divorced. In a different case, where the husband put down $20,000 to buy a house, a different judge refused to allow the husband to get his money back.

I have always believed that the role of an attorney is to advise his or her client on a course of action based upon what the attorney believes would happen were a matter to be decided by a court.

But, at least in the divorce realm, it seems like it is very difficult to predict what a court might do in any given case. And that leads me to conclude that it might not be in your best interest to let the outcome of your divorce be decided by a judge.

Instead, why not mediate your divorce? This way you can control the outcome and determine what is going to happen to you, without taking the risk of having a third party, be it a judge or a lawyer, determine how your future will look.