WHY DOES COURT TAKE SO LONG?

You may have seen in the news recently a report about the Mesa woman who was sentenced to three and a half years for running over her husband because he did not vote for her candidate in the 2012 presidential election.

Our firm represented that man in his divorce and custody case to get him divorced and successfully protect the parties’ child from this mentally ill woman. Ironically, the divorce took about ten (10) months to complete and the criminal case was prolonged for over 54 months before justice was finally served.

So why does take so long to get into court? This question is one that I constantly get asked. Every client wants a speedy resolution of his or her divorce or other type of family law case. Unfortunately, a contested case - contested meaning that the parties cannot reach a speedy agreement of each and every issue - often requires between eight (8) and 12 months from start through trial or final settlement. The reasons for this are many.

First and foremost, the courts are severely congested. At any given moment, there are approximately 35,000 dissolution cases pending in Maricopa County alone.

In addition, depending on the judge that is randomly assigned to your case, this can make a big difference on how fast you proceed through the system. A few judicial divisions move along quickly, sometimes losing full and fair trials along the way. Some are horribly slow, which brings to mind the old adage “Justice delayed is justice denied.” Most divisions make sincere efforts to proceed as quickly as possible but the huge number of cases assigned to each judge makes the progress slow.

Also, clients sometimes think that we have it in our power to settle cases no matter what the circumstances and even if the other side does not wish to settle. Still other clients sometimes believe that the court can impose a settlement upon the parties without the necessity of a trial. Simply, these beliefs are not true. Every party, whatever the reason, no matter how ridiculous the claim or how fair the proposed settlement, every party in our system has the right to demand a trial and be heard at trial.

We know that this lengthy process is discouraging, but it is essential that you adjust your personal plans, emotions, expectations and thinking to accommodate the reality of this almost inevitable delay. Once it is done, you will most likely look back and see this period as a blur or a inconvenience that you simply had to tolerate and endure. You will, however, get there; and, as I tell clients all the time, “there is life after divorce, hang in there.”