A modest proposal

To speed the process and reduce costs, I propose forcing courts to hold custody trials no more than a year after filing

Recently, I was reading transcripts from a family court hearing when I reached a curious portion.

Now, I don’t know what any of that means except that it doesn’t sound like they are close to concluding and they’ve gone on for a long time.

Child custody cases have a way of dragging out, and the courts love it.

Lawyers make money, other court appointees make money: it’s how the system works.

Courts will not speed up the process by choice, only by force.

As such, upon reading that passage above, I had an epiphany.

Courts should be required to hold a custody trial no more than one year after the petition is filed.

I previously proposed the “Elaine Pudlowski Act” which would eliminate all court appointments like guardian ad litem, custody evaluator, parenting coordinator, and more.

If both my proposals passed, two things would happen.

First, parents would save a lot of time and money; second, the decisions couldn’t be any worse, since the decisions are so awful now.

As such, I propose a law which would state, “The Court shall hold a child custody trial no more than 365 days after a petition for custody is filed, unless the two parties reach an agreement before that. The two parties can still reach an agreement during the trial.”