It's Not a System of Justice;

it's just a system.  Don't you love that?  A friend of mine from the Trenches told it to me over the weekend.  The sad thing is that it's true.  Anyone who goes into court hoping to get justice is likely to be disappointed.  As I've said numerous times before, the courts are not to serve justice, but to resolve disputes, and they do it by their own rules.  Many of those rules are not fair.  Take one of my cases right now.  The brief facts are that my client has children from her first marriage, some of whom are still under the age of 18.  They live with her in the house that she owned from her first marriage, which is titled in only her name.  She's now married to husband number two; they live in the house.  The other facts are not pertinent.  My client wants a divorce.  In Maryland, the spouses have to be living separate and apart for a year in order to get a divorce.  The husband won't leave.  The wife can't force him out, because even though it is not his house, he is her husband and it is the marital home.  What this means is that for my client to get a divorce, she and her three unemancipated children will have to move out of the house, which she owns and to which the husband has no rights, and find another place to live for the next year.  It's her house and her mortgage, so she also has to make the monthly payment in order to keep her house after the divorce is over.  It is impossible for the Court to award the husband either the right to the exclusive right to live in or to own the house after the divorce, yet, four people are being held hostage by his refusal to move out.  How is that fair?  It's not, but that's the rule and the system.  Here in the Trenches.