An Exploration of a Divorce Statute:: Implications for Future Policy Development

Abstract

An increasing divorce rate since the 1960s has created concern with identifying the adjustments associate with marital separation. This paper focuses on how an adversary divorce statute affects post-separating adjustment. In-depth interviews were completed by 205 divorced individuals. The data suggest that satisfaction with the legal system is greater when either the relationship between the lawyer and the separated individual or the feelings toward the economic settlement issues is more positive. Better adjustment to the separation is reported if the respondent had not been encouraged by the lawyer to create an adversarial relationship with their former spouse. An adversarial legal system may have greater negative affects for respondents without children than those with children in their adjustment process. Discussion concludes an adversarial model may be most appropriate for the older respondent with more children. No-fault statutes may facilitate the process of adjustment for some, but not reflect the ...