[Dr. Octagon]

Adultery, abuse, and addiction are valid reasons for divorce. In lieu thereof, I'd like to see equitable, non-gender-biased custody awards, predicated upon a legally encoded rebuttable presumption of joint residential custody.

[GreatOne]

I tell you, I practice law in West Central Minnesota, covering, and in the 4 primary counties I practice in, there is only 1 judge out of 8 who will always give infant children to the mother. I personally believe that children under 8 should go to their mothers in most (not all) cases, which I know may be disagreed with vehemently here. Just based on 5+ years of practice (and my own marriage!).

I also agree that we need to go back to fault divorce, and that if fault is proven, that faulting party will be penalized in the property division as well as custody determinations. It would make a lot of peopel think twice before they throw the towel in (so to speak).

If you're familiar with the proposed (draconian) new bankruptcy laws, debtors have to go to financial counseling before filing for bankruptcy. Same thing should go for divorce, although I know that if one party wants out, most times all the counseling in the world won't help. Regardless, divorce should be difficult to obtain; there are adequate protections for women in abusive relationships today so that that won't be as big of an issue.