Family Law

Who Does Family Court Favor?

By Fox Rothschild

In some cases, I am the 2nd lawyer in a case.  The "new" client comes into my office and asks what I can do because obviously the courts "favor the other sex".  I say this because many women cannot believe how the family courts favor men, and many men cannot believe how the family courts favor women.

What are the scenarios where one sex may feel cheated?  They include some of the following:

• Alimony is awarded for a substantial period of time (Women are obviously favored).
• Alimony is awarded for a short period of time (Men are obviously favored).
• The asset division is 50-50 (Depends who you are or how big the estate is to figure out who was favored).
• The percentage of the asset division is tilted toward one spouse (Obviously the court favored the sex of the spouse with the higher percentage).
• The Court awarded the father shared and equal custody (Men are favored).
• The Court awarded Mother primary custody (Women are favored).

I don't know about you, but this list looks silly to me.  My experience is that neither sex wins more than the other - that courts do their best to try to figure out what is right.  Are "mistakes" made?  Sure they are.  Even more reason, as I have written in prior blog posts, to hire an experienced, reasonable lawyer, who knows what he/she is doing, and to hope that your spouse does the same thing, so that you can work toward an amicable settlement and get on with your life.

Full post as published by Pennsylvania Family Law on November 25, 2007 (boomark / email).