[xzins]

a spouse wanting to leave a rotten partner

Yeah, it's true that some spouses are hard to get along with. Part of me actually believes that folks who choose that poorly should be required to spend 10 years imprisoned with the creep just to make them think about what marriage is all about.

I don't have a lot of sympathy for those who have kids, though. These immature "adults" who cheat, connive, choose poorly, run around, etc. then dump their wasteland all over the rest of society should pay through the nose. Their kids have incredibly high rates of costly anti-social behavior.

And then we have to pay the costs for these scumbags...both of them...so I'm not sympathetic toward either. They should keep their mouths shut, do their duty, raise their kids, and then when the kids are out of the house, if they still haven't managed to grow up, then they can divorce.

But a cheating partner should have to pay as should the partner of their fling. I could care less if they're starved for LUUUUVV.

[Nimitz]

You've completely missed my point. If a spouse has become an f head in bunches of ways, then it is he/she that has wrecked the marriage. Using your interpetation one could get married, go to the dark side (become an a$$hole via whatever mechanism he or she employs), then blame their spouse when the spouse trys to continue to flourish and be nurtured. You still have not placed any responsibility on the a$$hole who caused the nightmare in the first place. It's my view that the cheatee is at fault MUCH, not most, of the time. Perhaps the jury could have said, " we find in favor of both parties, $2 mil for the plaintiff for being the "victim" of a naughty fling and in regard to the countersuit, $4 mil for the defendant to be paid by both the plaintiff and the plaintiff's attorney for causing the grief which initiated this affair to begin with...the attorney for enticing the a$$hole to sue..."