No Fault Divorce A Sign of Changes in Mexico City
In Mexico City, the New York Times’ Elisabeth Malkin paints
a vivid picture of life in divorce court. Amidst the conversations of attorneys, judges and clients, a secretary
uses a drill to bore holes into thick piles of legal documents before tying
them with twine.
It’s an image that epitomizes the Mexico City divorce process, wherein charges are laid out, counter-charges made, evidence filed,
motions and appeals entered and cases drag on for years.
The local assembly has taken steps to change the process and
speed things up. Previously, a divorce
required a couple prove grounds for divorce, be it violence, cruelty, terminal
illness or adultery. A new category has
been created in the last year, one familiar to many Americans. Mexico City now recognizes no fault
divorces.
The change mirrors what is happening in Mexican
society. In 2000, the number of divorces
per 100 marriages nationwide was 7.4. It
has risen to 13 as of this year.
More
women are employed full-time, providing many with an economic freedom they can
use to pull out of a bad marriage. The
Catholic Church once held an enormous influence over social issues in Mexico,
but now that power has diminished, and the taboo nature of divorce has all but
vanished as a result.
Under the new law, a person can ask for a divorce for no
reason and theoretically have it granted within a month; however, Mexico’s legal system has not yet
caught up to the theory.
Two-thirds of divorces are filed by women, but critics argue
that this process does not offer much additional protection. Under the old system, a divorce could stretch
on for years, but once it concluded, a judge would determine child custody,
child support, alimony and property division in one decision.
Now that the divorces are happening much more
quickly, couples have taken their arguments on these issues into legal motions
that have continued to clutter the system.
Alberto Roman, an attorney who handles divorce cases in the
city, believes the new law has bettered the situation not only in terms of
pacing, but also in terms of emotional impact. Under the new system, couples do not need to call witnesses.
These have historically been children (who
all-too-often had great seats from which to watch the marriage end), and Roman
believes that the no fault process has taken "80% of the emotional
burden" out of filing for divorce.
By removing other constraints, the more vulnerable party
cannot easily be "extorted," accepting a poor economic arrangement in return
for their freedom from the bad marriage. The no fault process has leveled the negotiating table for both parties.
Mexico City has used no fault divorce for less than eight
months, and judges do not yet know how the final processes regarding child
custody and support will look.
Poor
record keeping and income-tax evasion are common problems in Mexico, and they
give unscrupulous parties an easy way to hide property and income, and the new
law may make it harder for one party to prove the other is holding out on the
court process without the rigorous motions process contained in the old
system.
Pilar Delgado, an attorney for women’s advocacy organization
Vereda Themis, offers an even more novel solution to the challenges of divorce
in Mexico. She advises her clients to
file a family dispute motion and resolve the economic and custody questions
before coming near a courtroom.
In other words, while the changes have improved the overall
picture, it seems like the whine of a power drill will be a common sound in
divorce court for some time to come.
Source: The
New York Times
