Divorce “Documentary”
January 10, 2014
I’ve been asked my opinion about the “expose” on the divorce “industry” called “Divorce Corp”. According to the hype, the documentary exposes divorce as:
“a $50 billion a year industry, with more funds flooding in to family courts in the United States than all other court systems combined…according to filmmaker Joseph Sorge who was inspired by his own divorce and custody battles a few years ago, it’s an unregulated mess in which children are ripped from their homes, insulting judges play God with parents lives, and unlicensed custody evaluators are more like extortionists.”
Here is a review from rogerebert.com
Although I have not seen the film, from the stories and reviews, it appears that it takes a few outrageous examples and extrapolates to those being the rule rather than the exception. In fact, much of the film is apparently about one case.
That is about as scientific as taking Bernard Madoff and exposing the investment advising business as ripping off customers.
In reality, the vast majority of lawyers I deal with are highly professional. Most – and I when I say most, I mean well over 80% – do what professionals are supposed to do, which is to work for the best interests of their clients.
So do most judges and experts. The vast majority of judges I have appeared before – and this well over 90% – care deeply about the people who appear in front of them and try very hard to do the right thing as they see it.
Sure, there are exceptions, but you can take any profession, do a feature on the few outliers and pretend to be doing an expose. It may make good hype for the news media, but it is poor logic and not reality.
