Changing Divorce Laws In America

Changing Divorce Laws Americans do just about everything a bit more spectacularly than most other people. That includes marriage and divorce. The United States has the world's highest divorce rate and it also leads in the rate of remarriage after divorce, an occurrence that frequently boosts the statistics by leading to yet another breakup. Americans, in short, appear to be marrying more and enjoying it less. This situation distresses clergymen, sociologists and anthropologists, who rightly regard stable marriage as the foundation of society. But it is only half the tragedy of divorce in America. The real scandal is not that so many Americans resort to divorce. It is that so many of the laws of the land are sadly out of step with the growing
Whatever else marriage may be, the state regards it as a public contract that only the state can dissolve. The laws that govern that dissolution in the United States, however, are not only widely conflicting and confusing—all 50 states have their own laws —but are based on notions that are out of touch with the changing realities of modern society. Most of them tend to embitter spouses, neglect the welfare of the children, prevent reconciliation and produce a large measure of hypocrisy, double-dealing and perjury. Looking at the welter of divorce laws in the United States, David R. Mace, executive director of the American Association of Marriage Counselors, can only call it "an absolutely ghastly, dreadful, deplorably messy situation."(s) Across the United States, judges, lawyers and marriage experts are raising an urgent cry that it is time to reform and humanize the divorce
Alexander's much-admired conciliation court averts divorce in 44% of the cases it tackles. In Los Angeles, Judge Roger A. Pfaff's conciliation court gets 50% of its business from lawyers who refer unhappy spouses even before they file divorce suits. With the aid of eleven highly trained counselors who must have at least ten years' experience, Pfaff's court helps more than 4,000 volunteer couples a year, gets 60% of them to make up and sign detailed "husband-wife" agreements that have the force of law. "Divorce courts throughout America are burying marriages that are still alive," says Meyer Elkin, Pfaff's supervising counselor.(S) The success of conciliation courts proves that it is perfectly possible to create a rational divorce system that saves as well as severs—if the United States wants