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The Broken Divorce System is Hurting Children and Families For The Profit of Lawyers Letter to the Editor I read with interest the July 13th New York Times Editorial, "The Politics of Exploding Houses." I can't speak to weather NY State needs No Fault or not, what I can speak to is that the system of divorce in this country whether a fault or not fault state is very flawed and for the most part very biased against men, and in some cases against women too. It is very much in favor of the divorce lawyers which you rightly state have inflated fees at the expense of millions of broken families within our great nation.
The whole system needs radical change. However, change is very
slow in coming very often since most legislative bodies are
controlled by lawyers, some of them who continue to practice
family law while working as our legislators. This is a direct
conflict of interest.
Most people do not realize that separating and divorcing men and
fathers have one of the highest rates of suicide in our nation.
Very often these men are thrown from their house, robbed or
alienated from their kids and destroyed financially and than are
sometimes labeled as deadbeats. The true label very often is
dead broke dads. Child support must be based upon reality and
should be fair to all parties.
The system needs to be changed in many ways, especially for the
health and welfare of our nations children. Children of divorce
have higher rates of suicide, drug use, alcohol use, early
sexual activity and a host of other health problems. When one
parent is absent or is seen less, the children, according to
research, develop father or mother hunger, and have even higher
rates of the aforementioned problems.
So what is the solution. First and foremost, our society must
do more to try to help people maintain marriages. Married
people tend to live longer and have happier and healthier
lives. Most marriages run into some problems during the course
of a marriage for a myriad of reasons. Some people need
assistance to work through those problems and society should
find ways to encourage healing, especially where children are
involved. Where separation and divorce are inevitable, first
and foremost, all states should adopt a presumption of Shared
Parenting as was recently adopted in the great state of Iowa,
when both parents are fit. Second, people should be either
mandated or encouraged to try mediation or collaborative
divorce. Divorce lawyers often tend to inflame an already
emotional state just for their economic benefit. This must
change.
We have to find ways to make separation and divorce more civil,
and do it for our nations children. It is in their best
interest and also in the best interest of the divorcing mom and
dad.
Peter G. Hill
39A Warren Avenue
Weston, MA 02493
781-373-2500
cell 617-763-3370
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