Lawyers, Litigation & the Human Needs

Highly conflicted families are usually found in counselling offices struggling to make it together. And when they failed to work things out some ended up in Courts. About 12% of these remained in a state of perpetual conflict. They as a group is the main source of incomes of family lawyers; an average divorce legal costs per couple in Toronto is about C$60,000. That's a lot of mullahs if you asked me. The litigation process as we know today isn't working. Family incomes paid to lawyers are taken out from looking after the young ones. That's the opportunity costs. They are the innocent victims the legal professionals don't like to talk about. Lawyers prefer to speak about how they represented the legal rights of their clients. They might even add that the current systems are the only ones we got and until better ones come along we are stucked with the present status quo. What we need to hear more of are solutions to mitigate more costly litigations. What we need to have are systems that help more people to move on with their lives without the high costs passed on to the children as their burdens. We must stay away from litigating family issues, especially parenting after the split. We currently have mediators, but they are under-utilized because lawyers prefer not using the process unless they have to. I would prefer putting mediation and other forms of dispute resolution in place prior to litigation. Jus my 2-cent worth.


blackberrycat