Family
Court Judge Spencer
Kagan recently decided
that a divorced
husband's alimony
payments to his
ex-wife should have
stopped after she
remarried, and ordered
her to repay him
about $9,000 retroactively
to the date of her
remarriage.
But here's the catch:
In their separation
agreement, the parties
had specifically
deleted a provision
stating that the
wife's alimony would
cease upon cohabitation
or remarriage.
One might argue
that at last a family
court judge gave
a father a break,
and that, after
all, why should
he have to keep
paying alimony once
she was financially
secure.
But my personal
take is different.
Family Court judges
must stop interfering
in our lives except
when absolutely
necessary. These
two people were
adults, and had
lawyers to advise
them when they made
their agreement.
Where does the court
get the power to
blithely dump a
legal agreement
in favor of a solution
that happens to
be what the judge
personally thinks
is fair? If judges
can do this whenever
they want, we are
stripped of the
power to arrange
our own lives as
we see fit. And
there can be no
finality, since
a judge can always
reopen the matter
you thought was
closed to impose
his/her own opinions
on your life.
The excessive power
of the judges is
exactly the root
of the problems
we now face in court.
The same mentality
is at work when
a judge decides,
with no scientific
evidence, that one
person is a better
parent and ought
to be the custodial
parent; while the
other parent can
only be a "visitor."
And it is at work
when the courts
tell divorced people,
but not married
people, how much
we must spend on
our children, instead
of leaving it to
our love and judgment;
or that we must
send them to college
even if in all good
faith we believe
they are not ready,
or would do better
in another path.
Family court judges
are now micromanaging
people's lives,
not according to
written law, but
according to their
personal prejudices.
They must stop doing
so, and save their
powers for cases
of abandonment,
neglect, abuse,
or serious lapses
of judgment. |