|
Practical Moral Philosophy for Lawyers A Matter of Custody You represent the wife in an acrimonious divorce action. Your client, a physician, has no desire to continue supporting her husband in the manner to which he has grown accustomed in the ten years that they have been married. The physician tells you quite explicitly that she expects her husband to get custody of the children, as her demanding work has resulted in her husband's being primarily responsible for the children during her medical education and various residencies. The client is, however, afraid that her husband's outrage over the fact that she is leaving him for a younger man will result in an effort to make her suffer as much as possible. The client is concerned about protecting her financial interest in a pharmaceutical business that a larger supermarket chain is considering for purchase. The client suggests the possibility of seeking custody of the children and using custody as a "bargaining chip" in the settlement negotiations. The client wants you to threaten the husband with a custody fight while making it abundantly clear that she does not want actual custody of the children. The client's theory is that by seeking custody she can then bargain with her husband to forego any interest he might try to claim in the pharmaceutical business. Would you be willing to use the threat of a custody fight in your negotiation knowing that your client has no desire to have custody of his children? Notes 1. On the use of threatened custody fights by clients and lawyers, see Scott Altman, Lurking in the Shadow, 68 So. Calif. L. Rev. 493 (1995); Paul G. Haskell, Why Lawyers Behave as They 9, 71-72 (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1998). 2. On the role of the lawyer in divorce cases, see: James R. Elkins, A Counseling Model for Lawyering in Divorce Cases, 53 Notre Dame Law 229 (1977). On children and custody battles, see Mary Ann Mason, The Custody Wars: Why Children are Losing the Legal Battle and What We Can Do About It (New York: Basic Books, 1999).
|
