What If There Were Jury Trials in Divorce Cases?

When divorce lawyers schedule a full day of initial consultations with prospective clients, they often come home from work feeling like they sounded like a broken record.  Most people who are not lawyers know nothing about the legal system except what they have seen in movies and on TV shows.  Most of the media portrayals of the court system involve criminal trials, which, for their part, are rarer than the viewing public realizes.  Clients cannot fathom that no one is innocent or guilty in most cases that courts decide and even that it is usually the clients, rather than a judge, that decide the outcome of family law cases.  Despite how clients might be spoiling for a fight, no one wins or loses in a divorce or parenting plan case.  Two Florida lawmakers have proposed legislation that aims to introduce jury trials, which would represent a major departure from long-standing family law procedures.  To find out more about how divorce cases work in Florida and how to ensure a fair trial if your case goes to trial, contact a Boca Raton divorce lawyer.
Proponents of Divorce by Jury Aim to Protect Vulnerable Litigants From Biased Judges
Divorce cases are a civil matter, like all other legal cases except criminal prosecution.  The court’s role in a divorce case is to legally dissolve the marriage and distribute the marital property and debts in an equitable way; equitable means fair, but it does not always mean equal.  The spouses in a divorce case are equal before the law, but some marriage dynamics include an imbalance of power, especially when one spouse is older and wealthier than the other or when one spouse’s immigration status depends on the marriage.
Two Florida lawmakers have proposed unrelated bills that would enable either party in a divorce case to request a jury trial.  The bills’ authors believe that letting a jury of their peers decide the outcome of a divorce case would be fairer than the parties agreeing to divorce settlements behind closed doors during mediation.
What Could Go Wrong With Divorce by Jury?
The bills in their current form are unlikely to pass, because family law is unlike the areas of civil law where jury trials are an option.  Florida sometimes has jury trials for tort cases such as personal injury lawsuits, where the goal is to determine whether the defendant is at fault for the plaintiff’s financial losses.  Trials are also a balancing act where the parties’ lawyers must be as persuasive as possible to get the jurors’ votes in their favor, but judges must constantly act as referees to ensure that what is said at trial meets legal standards of admissibility, that statements and evidence are relevant and not misleading.  Opponents of the new bills say that the court of public opinion is the last thing we need in family law cases.  The family court’s role is not to assign blame but to divide property, debts, and parenting time fairly, even as the spouses try to destroy each other’s reputations and everyone they know gets in on the act.
Contact Schwartz | White About Understanding the Divorce Process
A South Florida family law attorney can help you navigate how justice works in family law cases.  Contact Schwartz | White in Boca Raton, Florida about your case.
Source:
bocanewsnow.com/2025/03/14/two-democrats-call-for-divorce-by-jury-trial-in-florida/