Karma

Today, I went to Court in one of my cases. A young woman with no children who earns about same income as her estranged husband separated this spring. This man annoyed me early on in the case. The legal issues are simple. Divide what little property and debt they have and move on. There was a house, two cars, two credit cards, a small savings account and a tax refund. In my world, that is a simple divorce.

But of course, it did not stay that way. He left her for a co-worker, but blamed it on her. He took the car he had driven in the marriage, moved in with the girlfriend in a furnished apartment, posted their pictures all over My Space, and he told my client on My Space to get over it and act her weight. He went back into their house when she was at work and took things. He took their escrow refund check off the the front steps without telling her and cashed it. He kept failing to pay the car payment on the car he was driving effectively forcing her to pay it to protect her credit. Finally, after failing to pay the property taxes on his car, failing to renew tags and registration, and claiming he could not pay for it, he dropped the car off at my office (in one hour parking) with the keys and went and bought a new car with almost the same payment. My client, totally broke, was forced to just let it sit and the payments fall behind while she paid for her car, the house, the credit card and all the bills related to the house on just her income and what she could borrow from her parents.

The Judge today required him to be responsible for the car since May 29,2008 and to take care of taxes, insurance and payments. He ordered him to repay her the $851 dollars he took and to pay for some of her legal fees. And to sign over the income tax return check to her immediately.

I deal with people behaving badly every day. Worse, I deal with people who behave badly and feel justified for behaving badly every day. Most of the time, I do not see a court case in terms of winning and loosing. Usually, the decisions made by Judges in my cases are a resolution that is a mix of what you wanted and what you did not not to happen. In a divorce, no one is satisfied no matter the ruling. A Judge almost never does really say anything to satisfy. They are so numb to the behavior.

But today, I took pleasure in the outcome. I was gratified that this Judge took time to tell him he was wrong to leave everything in her lap. I am sure there are people who like this guy. I am sure he has a side in the story of the break up. I like my client's to gain a result favorable to them while I usually take little satisfaction in someone else loosing. Today it meant the world to me to watch him walk out of that room with nothing that he wanted. It meant almost as much as watching my client smile for the first time since I met her. Someone finally told her that she did not deserve his treatment. Perhaps that is wrong... to reveal in the discomfort of someone else. But today, it felt right.