Why is Family Court so Unpredictable?
You go court convinced that the law will set things straight but you leave the courtroom with that dear-caught-in-headlights expression of pure shock. And then to top it all off your lawyer says, “that wasn’t supposed to happen.”
Well if the lawyers can’t predict what will happen in court… who can?
This brings me to my next topic…
Why is family court so unpredictable and how can you have any control over its outcome.
No one and I REPEAT, no one knows what will happen in family court or can predict an outcome. And the reason why is simple. Its called “best interest of the child”. Family court uses “best interest of the child” as a guideline and this guidline trumps just about any law ever made. This guideline essentially gives the court COMPLETE control over decisions and rulings without regard to any written laws. What this means is, judges can do whatever they want and use this guideline as their reason for doing so. Now throw in the fact that judges are human and susceptible to the same bias, intimidation and brainwashing that everyone human on earth is subject to and you have a recipe for a really big cluster. Don’t let anyone, including a really expensive lawyer, a self-assured guardian ad litem, an experienced family therapist or expert witness tell you that they can predict exactly what will happen in family court. If they do, the are lying. Scary but true.
Consider criminal court. Its doesn’t have anything like a “best interest of the public” guideline. Its a little easier to predict the rulings judges will make in criminal court because everyone is operating under the premise of using the same “rule book”. In family court that “rule book” is as unique as the person creating it… the judge. The rule book changes, it morphs and distorts according to the whim of the judge.
Now what to do about it. KNOW YOUR JUDGE. He or she has the rulebook for their own courtroom so find out what the rules are. If he or she has shown bias in one way or another in the past it is important to know about it BEFORE you go to court. Don’t trust your lawyer to know this or care about it, research it or even consider this important. But think about it this way. If you know your male boss doesn’t respect frilly, feminine women, why would you wear a pink, flowered dress to a meeting requesting a raise and more responsibility? You can’t change who your boss is or their unreasonable bias so you work with what you know and wear a dark, pants suit, layoff the pink lipstick and give him a very firm handshake. Another scenario… Your coach seems to be really interested in promoting Brand A sports equipment to the point he benches anyone using another sports brand. You can’t change your coach and you certainly can’t accuse him of getting kickbacks from Brand A and risk getting kicked off the team… so you stock up on Brand A equipment and stay in the game. My point is work with what you know about your judge and find a way to use the judges own bias/prejudice/quirks in your favor.
Knowing who your judge is, how they think, how they’ve ruled in the past, decisions they’ve made is crucial to predicting how they will make decisions in your case.
