I was talking with a judge from South Carolina a few weeks go about an interstate custody problem. When I told him that I hear only family law cases, he said: "How in the world do you stand it? I find after hearing a few divorce cases, I need to hear a friendly first degree murder case or two to regain my sanity." A number of judges have told me they'd sooner preside over grisly criminal cases than divorce or custody suits.
I think the reason so many judges don't like to decide divorce cases (and the reason so many lawyers won't even accept divorce cases) is the fact that in so many divorce and custody cases, both sides are absolutely right.
Lawyers and judges are trained to concentrate on the past and to think in terms of right and wrong. An automobile collision occurred--whose fault was it? A...