Here is the third in a series of Divorce Corp polls. Please vote only once. We will not store your identity with this answer. We will post the results after we have received a statistically significant number of votes.
[polldaddy poll=7809811]
And here are the results, accurate to within + / – 5%
Unfortunately divorce is one of the leading causes of bankruptcy in the United States. In Scandinavia, people merely fill out a form and wait 6 months. It costs about $100 in Scandinavia. No court. No lawyers. The Scandinavians are living proof that divorce and custody can be resolved with minimal cost and minimal angst.
Why would our government force us to go to court and spend so much for a divorce, to the point of bankrupting so many people? Does our government think that bankruptcy is good for the general public? Or do our “leaders” simply not care about destroying half of the middle class in order to make a wealthy class of professionals (i.e. campaign contributors) more wealthy?
If you are outraged by these facts, like we are, please join our reform movement on our Reform page! We need to let our legislators know that we are not happy with this scam to enrich their friends and that we will be watching their voting record on family law issues going forward.
Get email notifications of
new blog posts and updates:
Actually, I did meet criteria for bankruptcy but did not file. Debt from divorce is not dischargeable in bankruptcy court.
It cost me $50,000+ back in 1997 to get divorced. My income was $55K
My ex and I had a net worth of just about 1 million dollars in 2005. The house lost $300,000 in value while the ex squatted in it. My lawyers bills have been in excess of $500,000 for the divorce and custody. She filed custody actions on the average of 4 times a year claiming the same thing. She loses each time but I have to defend. So my 45% of the million is gone. If my parents had not loaned me $200,000, I’d be in bankruptcy. On the last trip through the courts the master had us go through a complete custody evaluation ($20,000) (legal fees of ($35,000) (Lawyer master appointed for the children $25,000) Oh this is after the master admitted they had not read the file—-it was too big. So the file is big, so you ignore what everyone else said over the past 6 years??
Want to name names? We need to OUT the bad apples!
my son is the one getting the divorce but I am the one losing the money and possibly the house and nothing is being looked at that should be, if you can get back to me before the 20th maybe this can change, I am willing to name names
Please send an email to outreach@divorcecorp.com with a summary of you story. Thanks
I’m happy to name names because all the evidence of the corrupt and illegal practices employed by my ex’s attorneys, my OWN attorneys who colluded, and the judge and his staff at the DC Superior Court are blatant in the Court Record and transcripts of the trial and hearings! They acted arrogantly with impunity because they knew there was zero oversight or accountability. If there was the slightest bit of oversight, these guys would all be disbarred and in jail!
I was not rendered bankrupt, per se, but I had to liquidate valuable assets to pay living expenses, legal fees, and accompanying medical fees.
I also found the District of Columbia Superior Court to be a house of horrors, which is very corrupt, filled with Judges who sit on the bench and laugh at litigants as if they are watching some sick kind of Shakespearean drama. It isn’t only DC thought, the DC Courts work with the Virginia Courts and the Maryland Courts to send abused mothers into homelessness, sell their children to rich fat-cat powerbrokers, and keep the money machine rolling to bring in $ for the courts. This includes the corrupt “Responsible Fatherhood” funds that send children to live with their ex convict fathers simply to take custody from loving mothers and eliminate child support for these bad fathers. How do you good fathers feel about paying your child support, when the bad fathers get off paying NOTHING. What needs to happen in every state is a grass roots effort to gather data on all court personnel, judges, lawyers, GALs, visitation centers… there’s a long list. Many have called for US Congressional Oversight Hearings because this is happening in every state. So far, no Hearings. If there aren’t hearings, then the people should march on Washington!
One important point: I have hard evidence that the very top of the courts and the Bar know full well about this corruption. In the DC Superior Court, Chief Judge Satterfield has been directly involved in it in my case.
Deanne, please join us in our reform efforts. We encourage Congress to study this problem and hold oversight hearings. We plan a conference in Washington, DC in mid-November 2014. Please sign up to our reform email list http://www.divorcecorp.com/reform. thanks
I have already met with 3 State assemblymen to talk about Family Code 2030 Attorneys fees abuses. They wont return my calls now.
Tell us their names. We will circulate their names.
I have personally met with staffers from
Bill Monning
Mark Stone
Bob Wiezcowski
and explained this issue to them. They have refused to return my calls
afterward.
The bad judges in my case.
Who used manufactured evidence and FC 2030 fees to defeat
appeals from their judgmenet are.
Drew Takaichi and
Susan Bernardini.
In 1974 the Family Court in Maryland allowed my husband to take the house and sell it without my consent or knowledge. He in turn sold it to his attorney’s daughter and son in law
I lost my home ,the furniture , car and our savings. All I had left were two little girls to support and then he decided to go after custody of the children. He had warned me that if I left him he would take everything I owned and the children too. . Then he completely disappeared from their lives only to reappear every few years. He made good on his word costing me thousands of dollars in legal fees every time he went after me for ten years.
Married 3 times with a marriage contract each time . Ended well.
Cheers! Were you the earner?
“….What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. Mt 19:6pp
That is the only law of this land that the courts can recognize and if they do otherwise, they will heap to themselves judgment before the throne of the Judge of all the judges of this earth.
Cost me $120,000 for the divorce with lawyers.
I lost the house, cars and almost my soul.
I’m better now and am happy with life!!
I just wished I had had a Divorce Care workshop to fall on instead of counselors…im at peace now!!
marty, my name is kathy jones. i read your response to this web site as i am desperately searching for remedy to my yet pending total devastation and becoming homeless. For whatever reason……my GOD….drew me to you. I really dont know what i an going to do….thank you for sharing positive view on your lifes traggity..ok thanks ok may the lord bless you.
I wish I had gotten the notice of this poll before it was closed because my divorce not only led to bankruptcy, but foreclosure and serious healthcare issues and disability.
Sorry, but the results of the poll reflect how you would have voted. Divirce is one of the top causes of bankruptcy – and it need not be that way if we can get our government to end the transfer of wealth from the middle class into the pockets of attorneys.
There is so much corruption and pay to play and cronyism…that the players(liar/lawyers/sewers destroy the lives of children and women……all to replenish their own pockets…..women and children’suffer eceonomically, especially, if the husbnd/partner has the financial means and ‘right liar/lawyer’ who is connected to a particular family court judge…..the destruction is horrid….and miserable…..when will the truth be heard….?I am not sure….since there are bottom feeders standing in the wings to repeat the painful process……thoughts ?
I read a study that portrayed how husbands and wives who were abusive during the marriage and in the financially superior position used litigation to continue their abuse, long after a divorce had been obtained. An immature, angry, and vengeful spouse is fodder for the Family Law legal community. Their clients’ intent was never a simple divorce but annihilation of the former spouse.
Please take a look at my blog http://www.courtcollision.blogspot.com. You are oh so correct, my ex married the widow of the former magistrate judge Cobb County, Georgia(same county as my divorce) a few years after my divorce was final. My divorce judge served with this magistrate judge on the Georgia State Bar Board of Governors for years and they were very close. I was thrown in the county jail for 18 1/2 months on a void contempt order, which violated the automatic stay and discharge injunction of my bankruptcy and my Final Order of Binding Arbitration (in violation of Georgia state codes). My joint custody was taken away at this contempt hearing, I never had any custody hearing. My ex-husband is also a lawyer and real estate broker who did favors for the Cobb County Court Administrator who was removed in 2008 (he was at the time the President of the National Association of Court Administrators appointed by President George Bush). He was removed after I testified before the House Judiciary Committee with a group of others in 2007, before the Honorable John Conyers about my divorce with all the supporting legal documents. The first time I had ever been in court in my life was over this divorce. I was shocked beyond words, I never even had a ticket, and I was 47 years old. Major reforms are needed and long overdue!
My divorce cost $400,000 in Texas in 2008 – 2009. Her legal fees were $150,000. My legal fees were $70,000. psychologists for the kids, apartment rent, rental furniture, forensic accounting and other advices brought the total to $400,000. Stay-at-home-wife requested the divorce. I am an engineer. I agreed to my wife’s divorce demand, wanted 50% of the time with the kids and 50% of the community property. The result after 2 years of legal conflict was that she got 60% of the community property and 66% of the time with the kids; I pay $22,000 (tax free) child support. I lost my house, I lost most of my stuff and I have no vote in any decision related to the raising my kids. There were no problems in the marriage (no substances abuse, no abuse, no financial problems, just an unhappy wife).. My kids barely talk with me today. Marriage without a prenuptial agreement makes no sense.
Well, yes it lead me lost everything close to bankruptcy…i got the minimum of child support but my spousal support i haven’t recessive any …..my question will be to any one here is there anything that i can do to make him pay ? I been divorced for 6 years now and he move to Boston
I hate to break it to you but this site is to explain how the system is corrupt, not how to track an ex down that is likely running from you because he is broke and doesnt want to live out of a cardboard box. Call the cops if your extra paycheck is that important to you.
mine cost over 200k. Lovely for the family law industrial complex. Guaranteed income.
Shameless! My ex husband, paid private jude and attorneys all colluded to spend a fortune on the divorce process. I pushed the process until the assets were divided and distributed. The cost of the divorce would have sent both of my children to Ivy League colleges for four years and then some graduate school. What a fool i married.
My ex-husband was an even a bigger fool. His Svengali attorney incited him to continue ludicrous litigation until HIS assets were all gone. Once his assets were gone, his attorney fired him! The whole process is entirely without shame–and kept obscured by the ones who profit.
My [now] husband’s lawyer took over $500k from him alone and convinced my husband, on the eve before the trial, to hand over the balance of his unliquidated assets to his [now] x-wife in a settlement that has left him bankrupt. I believe he did this in large part because he knew exactly how much my husband had left in the bank and that he wouldn’t be able to pay him immediately after the trial. He had no idea that this lawyer was himself in legal trouble and that he was likely his last client…
This lawyer was later disbarred after someone took him to court for overbilling, but not before he fleeced my huband. Said lawyer filed Ch. 13 bankrupcy, so my husband would have to get in line with all the other creditors after another expensive law suit if he has chosed to sue him.
Are you talking about the infamous Glenn Lewis?! He was my lawyer too and wow, what a corrupt ____________ (fill in the blank with the worst name that comes to mind. There’s a Facebook page for Victims of Glenn Lewis and the Lewis Law firm. Tell your story or submit a private message that can be anonymously posted if you are afraid.
YES, YES. AND. YES….A LONG. DRAWN . OUT. HIGH. CONFLICT DIVORCE. MOST CERTAINLY. CAN LEAD. TO. BANKRUPCY. AND. CAN. ALSO LEAD. TO. YEARS. OF. IRS ISSUES…AND. DEVISTATING. CREDIT. ISSUES..,IF. DIVISION. OF. PROPERTY. ASSETS. WERE. NOT. HANDELED. PROPELY
My divorce led unquestionably to Bankruptcy. Michener (in “Alaska”) said it would but my ex apparently never read it.
And what about foreclosures? I gave the ex a beautiful new home in Palm Beach Gardens, only to loose my substandard home ten years later to foreclosure, while continuing to pay Lifetime Alimony. Where is the equity?
We need to reform the system to get equity. http://Www.divorcecorp.com
I did not have to go “bankrupt”, but I am nearly flat broke and my kids hate me and do not want to see me and are victims of emotional abuse – not by me
It’s remarkable how impressionable these children are. I worked hard to raise my kids to be honest and upright but they were easily seduced by the amenities my rich ex-husband offered them. They “swallowed the cool-aid” and became convinced that I was the villain. Now they are all struggling with issues and their father has abandoned them.
This percentage is really high. I also wonder, however, how many people would claim bankruptcy if Support were dischargable in bankruptcy as well. It is nothing for a person making $30k-$50k to rack up that much or multiples of that in arrearages; a debt that can never be repaid even under the best of circumstances!
My X wife and I are immigrants, hard working physicians, involved parents of our children. Our kids lost a million dollars – 8 lawyers, including the god !!! 20,000 custody eval, god appointed gal and child rep- 50 k each, past fired lawyers – 100,000.
Yes I went bankrupt after my divorce in 1997 for $98,000
Then in 2007 had a custody battle over my son who wanted to live with me full time
That cost me $300,000
and then I was ordered to pay child support to my ex who was making
$20,000 a month at that time and I was making $4000 a month
I was also ordered to pay my attorney, my sons attorney, my daughters attorney, my therapist, my kids therapist, professional monitors totaling $1800 a month in addition to the child support an court costs
It was three times more than I made gross in a month
If you would like to participate in our upcoming video testimonial series please send an email to outreach@divorcecorp.com. Thakd
Yes I would like to participate in video testimonial
I was also one of the Moms that had Dr Joseph Kenan as an evaluator
My life was destroyed by him and the court system
Yes I went bankrupt after my divorce in 1997 for $98,000
Then in 2007 had a custody battle over my son who wanted to live with me full time
That cost me $300,000
and then I was ordered to pay child support to my ex who was making
$20,000 a month at that time and I was making $4000 a month
I was also ordered to pay my attorney, my sons attorney, my daughters attorney, my therapist, my kids therapist, professional monitors totaling $1800 a month in addition to the child support an court costs
It was three times more than I made gross in a month
My rich ex-husband filed for the divorce and over 3/4 of the litigation. Yet the judge ruled that I owed “a significant portion” of my ex’s legal fees. I was a 60-year- old house wife and mother with only two years of paltry temporary alimony and stuck with only illiquid assets. I appealed that ruling and won a unanimous reversal, but the appellate court ruled only on the statutory law issue and ignored the gross, unlawful malfeasance of the judge. It was surreal!
I did not go into Bankruptcy but I remember someone told me her first attorney said quote “I’m going to destroy him”…After only 5 months into the divorce she finally asked her first attorney for a balance on her account…Reluctantly he gave it to her…$100K…He gave it to her alright…($20 K/Mo) This person is a very well known Boston attorney…He sued for his fee after it was reduced to $50K…He also had a lien on my old house to be sure he collected.. She then went through two more attorneys spending upwards of $150K total…
The way these attorneys go after couples assets after starting a divorce is disgraceful…They create mistrust to the extreme…The first attorney also had her change the Alarm System…He not only had her send me the bill but told her I might kill her in the night so its best to have a new alarm..
I would mention his name but He would probably sue me for sander…
This problem is systemic in the United States. Those of us in Georgia are just as disgusted with the god-like government officials and judges who deny constitutional rights to litigants before them, show strong signs of being financially influenced, fully engage in apathy and illegal procedures, continuously rule against pro se litigants and just plain don’t-know-the-law.
Fully aware that United We Stand is the answer, we’d like to hear from anyone, via a comment to FamilyCourtReview.com or a direct email, any procedural issues you endured during your divorce, child custody battle(s) or contempt proceedings. With a collective effort that is focused, valid and professionally presented, change will actually happen. But we have to UNITE.
Georgia’s family court is disgusting but as we now know through DivorceCorp., California and the rest of the country is too!
Thank you, Joseph Sorge.
Administrator@FamilyCourtReview.com
Our son tried getting visitation enforced because the mother repeatedly brings the children late or not at all. The judge simply noted the mother’s habitual tardiness, so she now has free rein to continue this practice–AND he had to pay her $5000 attorney’s fee!
Disgusting! Please join our reform movement on our Reform page. Thank you.
You are welcome!
In CA, my attorney charges 5k a month for nothing. It should be 2k. I have pleaded my ex several times to stop nd come to an agreement. I feel, divorce should be done without lawyers. Or lawyers should be better regulated. Too bad that they r not nd they take advantage of people. Please help.
I too learned of the corruptness of the “system” while going through a divorce in 2004. The only reason we didn’t lose more than we did was that we had family to fall back on. One solution would be to MANDATE mediation. Lawyers have no interest or investment in anything but your money. It’s a “mill”. The lawyers and judges should be ashamed of the organized crime they participate in. Was the divorce process always this destructive?
Yet another atrocity: divorced middle aged men appear to be ‘self terminating’ rather than bare the agony(http://jech.bmj.com/content/57/12/993.full). Suicide rate is 4+ times higher for divorced middle-aged men that married men of same age (preliminary DOH study).
When I got divorced my husband and I agreed to everything signed the papers and that was that.
However, since that time family court has bankrupted me. My grandchildren were taken by CPS and I have been fighting ever since to have custody of them.Although I won hands down in the appelate court the state has taken me to the Michigan supreme court to have custody given to the michigan children institute who will in turn adopt them out. This is all thanks to a federal funding scheme that brings federal money into the state for children taken into custody via foster care and adopted out.
I have spent over 100K and am not finished yet I am a grandmother, foster parent, registered nurse and victim of corruption, fraud and abuse from our courts and government agencies!
It’s a tragedy! So sorry for you and your grandchildren.
http://publicdocs.courts.mi.gov:81/opinions/final/coa/20130625_c309161_43_309161.opn.pdf
Interesting case about a grandmother winning the rights to adopt her grandchildren after the trail court put them in foster care.
Then the state took me to the MI SC to prevent me getting custody. It is my case.
If my aging mother, and two sister, had not pulled together to support me, I would have been bankrupt and homeless.
I can’t get divorced. Ten years later and still hiring attorney’s. Spent of $100,000 defending against false allegations. After bankruptcy which was due to the housing market plummeting, my ex-husband came after me with 5 more lawsuits. Now his wife represents him and I have to go pro se against two attorneys. They need to get rid of hearings. Hearings are used to line the pockets of lawyers with false allegations and motions to wear down the opponent while waiting for a Trial. Rules of evidence need to apply during hearings. Over 300 motions and a big waste of time and money maker. One Trial that solved all the issues but it doesn’t get my children’s childhood back with him fighting over every dollar to the point my kids just avoid us and don’t ask anymore. Trials are the way to go. They have to fight fair.