TOM JAMES on no-fault divorce:

The argument about the need to protect the integrity of legal processes by reducing the incentive to commit perjury may be a good one as applied to divorces without children, may it is not necessarily a great argument when custody of children is involved. A no-fault divorce system coupled with a preference for awarding only one parent custody of the children provides just as much incentive to commit perjury as the old fault-based system did. “[N]o-fault grounds for divorce have only caused the lying to shift (as did the hostility) from the part of the proceeding dealing with the grounds for divorce to the collateral aspects, especially child custody and visitation disputes.” False accusations of child abuse, and especially child sexual abuse, increased with the advent of no-fault divorce.

The argument that no-fault divorce better protects family privacy, and protects individuals from embarrassing or humiliating disclosures about their personal lives, is not applicable to divorces in which child custody is an issue. Nearly every aspect and embarrassing detail of the parents’ personal lives is relevant in a custody case. It has been suggested that the state’s intrusion into family privacy, far from declining, has actually increased significantly since no-fault divorce was implemented. . . .

The idea that no-fault divorce would lighten court caseloads also seems to have been proven wrong in practice. There has not been a decline in litigation. Instead, there’s simply been a shift in what people litigate about. Family court caseloads are heavier than ever.

Footnotes at the link.