New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
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“It is frequently asserted by divorce attorneys that a separation agreement that leaves both parties unhappy is a fair deal.
But that is questionable, as how does one party getting physical custody of the children measure compared to the other spouse receiving seventy percent of the marital assets and a low child support order?
When the agreement plays out and the non-custodial parent has visitation for four overnights a month, it is hardly relationship sustaining, and the custodial parent, and children, have a significantly reduced level of income how comparable is that as to its impact upon the parties when put into practice?
All too frequently divorcing parties are coerced and pressured into signing separation agreements that were redrawn and amended the very day of the divorce hearing. They are reminded that a continuing insistence on more visitation or increased support may not be ordered by the judge and they will remain in limbo indefinitely causing great uncertainty and a tremendous increase of legal fees.
And similarly legislators were presented with dire national and international consequences if the debt ceiling issue was not resolved presently, and they were provided insufficient time to absorb, digest and analyze the consequences of the fine print.
Compromised agreements have devastating effects sometimes and the only winners are the legislators who prepared, promoted and paraded their accomplishment to their constituents. And so too divorce attorneys can proudly shakes hands and be thankful for a time consuming trial that has been averted.
But the reality is all too often the compromised divorce agreement and the bipartisan debt ceiling legislation have unforeseen and devastating consequences that are patently unfair, and only cause incivility and inequity in the country and to the divorced family.
Betty Ussach.”
