Question: My estranged wife and I have not been able to agree on anything except that we are very disappointed with the way in which the courts have handled – or mishandled might be a better word -- our divorce case.
We each spent a lot of money paying lawyers to get our cases ready for a temporary hearing before a judge whom we were told would be fair. The lawyers prepared various affidavits and financial documents to give the judge a good idea about what our case was about and what we each wanted.

When we got to the courthouse at 10:45, we learned for the first time that 20 cases were scheduled for an 11 AM hearing slot, and we were 18th. By the time we finally got to see the judge, it was 1:30 PM, and he was clearly irritated – and probably hungry like us. He told the lawyers that each had three minutes to state his position. He then told the each lawyer to hand up the affidavits and financial documents which the judge had not had time to read before he heard the lawyers’ argument.

Two weeks later, my lawyer and my wife’s lawyer received a faxed message from the judge with his temporary decision that left out things like who would pay for the cars, the house, and the credit card bills. The judge’s fax said that everything else would be held in “abeyance” until a final hearing, but there would be no final hearing before we went through a mediation process.
If I handled matters in this way with my business, I could close the doors. How does the judicial system get away with this nonsense?

Answer: We agree that folks like you and your wife – not to mention your children -- are entitled to more from the judicial system; however, being entitled to it and getting it are two different animals.

According to the Constitutions of the United States and each state, there are three supposedly coequal branches of government: The Executive (Governor); The Legislative (General Assembly); and The Judicial (Court System). Yet, the Legislative Branches, which handle the budget process of state governments, have refused to fund their court systems as a co-equal partners. And eunuch-like governors don’t seem to be able to get much accomplished, even if they wanted to. The result: All states treat their court systems like red headed stepchildren and woefully underfund their needs. And in tough economic times like these, legislatures are even slashing court budgets as caseloads increase and cases become more complex. Surprisingly, across the board, if a state court system receives one percent of their state budget, that is a lot.
While some receive more, many receive less than one percent.

This means that not only the family courts you complain about, but also our criminal justice system and civil courts are overrun with cases with too few judges to handle them. The result: Delays and forced settlements rather than full, fair hearings to which all are entitled.

The effect on you and others like you: Economic drain and being forced into mediation -- and if really want your case over, maybe even final and binding arbitration of those issues that can be arbitrated through a private judge whom you and your wife will pay upwards of $300.00 per hour. If you choose not to go the “private judging” route, as caseloads continue to escalate in numbers and complexity, without needed resources, judges will be forced to allocate less time to each case assigned to him or her, and your case could well bounce around for years. This is especially not good when the issues include domestic violence and children.

Without competitive salaries, judges can’t be expected to stay on the bench. And without funds for clerks and computerization, judges can’t be expected to handle the caseload. This repetitive underfunding is especially egregious when the vast majority of funds collected by the judicial branch probably goes into your state’s General Fund to be used by the General Assembly as it deems appropriate, not to the court system.

What to do? We don’t know other than to complain to the deaf ears you find among our state legislators who make sure their per diem, retirement, health plan, and pet projects are funded fully. For more information, click here.