I'm about to head our for my 4th settlement conference this week [yes, I'm tired]. That means I had to have 4 settlement briefs out the door last week. Most Family Law cases settle in San Diego, because we strongly bias the process in favor of resolving differences. And, as I've written below, no one ever knows who is right.
However, here's a mess that is destined to remain in the papers for a long time, reported in the San Diego Union. It's about a San Diego Padres' outfielder. Now, if your life looks like this, you need more than a divorce lawyer - I'm not laying any blame, but how do you get yourself in these situations over and over again if you're paying attention? There are many people who make false domestic violence allegations, but usually there isn't security camera footage or independent witnesses watching - I'm just saying....
As a psychologist friend of mine once told me:
I got a call from a patient - he told me his first divorce had cost him $250K, his second cost $500K, and if he didn't get out of his current marriage quickly it was going to cost him at least $1,000,000 [this was about 20 years ago when that was real money]. I told him it would be cheaper for him to fix his problems than to divide up his assets over and over again every few years.
I never asked if the patient [1] took the advice, or [2] benefitted from it; the odds are that the answer to one of the questions is "NO!". Some people just can't learn from their own life experience, let alone the experiences of others. Either the guy in the story has a problem, or the women in his life have a problem - probably both, but not equally offensive.
