Divorce Corp. (2014)
More money flows through the family courts, and into the hands of courthouse insiders, than in all other court systems in America combined – over $50 billion a year and growing. Through extensive research and interviews with the nation’s top divorce lawyers, mediators, judges, politicians, litigants and journalists, DIVORCE CORP. uncovers how children are torn from their homes, unlicensed custody evaluators extort money, and abusive judges play god with people’s lives while enriching their friends. This explosive documentary reveals the family courts as unregulated, extra-constitutional fiefdoms. Rather than assist victims of domestic crimes, these courts often precipitate them. And rather than help parents and children move on, as they are mandated to do, these courts - and their associates - drag out cases for years, sometimes decades, ultimately resulting in a rash of social ills, including home foreclosure, bankruptcy, suicide and violence.
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Don't Believe the Hype
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
I found this movie all too real as it brought back my living hell of Family Court in Vista/San Diego, CA. Before I got married, my mentor and Investment Adviser encouraged me to get my fiancée to sign a Pre-Nump. I discussed it with her as I was very open with her and as I was already a millionaire on paper and as she was in debt, she agreed. After a 10 year marriage and her never working outside the home, I caught her having an affair with a Hollywood Agent named Jason Trawitz. It came out in Court she also had a brief affair with my best man in the wedding, Toby Russell. Guess its "my bad" for the betrayal of myself. How low of a despicable character does one have to be to sleep with your best friend, and what kind of best friend chooses to bang your wife? So my ex met this Hollywood Agent through the girl who gained fame as the Tool Time Girl who took Pam Anderson's place. Our families were tight and traveled together. In any event, after I found out about her divorce, I was still a sucker and tried taking her to Family Therapists. But as the good Dr's confirmed, she was more interested in being seen with Debbe Dunning in all the hot night clubs within the USA than she was being a good mother. One of the Family Therapists explained that some women's only self-worth is knowing they are sexually desired by the opposite sex. When they look in the mirror and see wrinkles, they resort back to when they were younger and gained self-worth by sleeping with popular guys. After I filed for divorce, she hired a Personal Injury Atty named Michael Quade (handling his first divorce)to represent her. She did not check this Vexatious and extremely deceitful person before she hired him. This guy was as dishonest as serial lying shysters Mohammad and Obama. As they are the two most prolific con men in history, that should tell you how shady this guy was and remains. He was able to dupe and incompetent and disinterested Judge named Brannigan into buying their lies of deceit. They refused to settle for any reasonable offers, and after walking into the Vista Court in 2006 with a Net Worth of 5 Million, I walked out a Victim of the System a broke man who was forced to declare BK to protect what little assets I had from the Vulture like White Collars Criminals known as Attorneys, and Judicial System who allows people to commit perjury, manufacture evidence, and manipulate the system to "legally" extort money out of a man who started washing dishes at 11, put himself through school, make countless sacrifices to honestly earn a slice of the American Dream, and fell Victim to the Great American Scheme; dishonest Attorney's and the Courts which allow them to hone their mass frauds upon an unsuspecting people...and now that I've become the first person ever in my family tree to be diagnosed with the disease of cancer, the Dr's at UCSD's Cancer Center say there can be a ling between "it" and the stress of a 6 1/2 year divorce which still continues to haunt me to this very day. You know I was on the verge of retirement and living the All American Dream when I discovered my ex was living a secret life. I was going to write a book on how to become a millionaire by treating people right, doing the honest and ethical thing, then after running into this Quade character, I did a 180* turn on the subject and just finished a book called Pieces Of Deceit. It's something that they don't teach you in business school, that the greatest threat to ones honestly accumulated Net Worth are the Con Men like Quade and the system which protects him.
"A film titled "Divorce Corp," along with a companion book, debuted across the nation earlier this month," said David H. Levy, founding partner and former managing partner of matrimonial law firm Berger Schatz, in a statement. "In my 37 years of practicing law, I have yet to come across such a biased and misleading portrayal of the many attorneys, judges and other professionals involved in matrimonial and family law. The so-called "documentary" paints a distorted picture, focusing on anomalous divorce cases that — as sometimes happens in any legal case — have gone badly for everyone. However, in my experience, those anomalies represent only a small fraction of most divorce cases, which are rarely easy but most often end equitably in a way that allows families and individuals to move ahead with their lives. To suggest that the scenarios depicted in the movie represent "typical" divorce cases is false and misleading, and unfairly maligns the hard work divorce lawyers do to resolve cases efficiently and fairly. To read his entire statement, go to the Berger Schatz website and click on the news section.
"Divorce Corp." (2014 release; 93 min.) is a documentary that takes a closer look at the business of divorce in the US. Yes, business, as we are informed that this is a $50 billion/yr. industry, and the average divorce (including related child custody issues) costs $50,000. As the movie opens, we are introduced to a guy in Cincinnati who tells the tragic story of how his second wife, not long after they have a little boy, pulls the rug from under his feet and is able to not only ruin his finances and reputation but also to keep him from seeing his own son. As the movie progresses, we come to know others (in Memphis, Dallas, etc.) who have similar blood-boiling stories to tell. To tell you more specifics of the documentary would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see it for yourself.Couple of comments: first, even though examples are pulled from across the country, the documentary as a whole is heavily California-focused, perhaps not a surprise since it seems California is on the cutting edge of many divorce/custody battle strategies (and they do mean "battle"). Second, what really gets under your skin is the vested and interlinked interest that EVERYONE involved except the families themselves, has to keep this "industry" going and growing. The documentary does a great job contrasting this with the situation in "Scandinavia" (mostly examples from Iceland, some from Sweden). Third, kudos to writer-producer-director Joe Sorge for bringing us this riveting, and revolting, assessment of divorce, and family courts in general.This movie showed up a few weekends ago on a single screen for all of Greater Cincinnati. I figured this wouldn't be playing long so I went to see it a few days ago. I had a private screening, as in: I was literally the only person in the theater. No matter, this is an excellent documentary. Whether you can check it out in the theater or on DVD/Blu-ray, "Divorce Corp." is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
I just got back from the Phoenix opening show, and I have to admit that I am a little upset. I am not upset with the quality of the film, but the way it left me feeling after being reminded of the corruption and pain from my past cases.The film makers did and excellent job of compressing an extremely complicated topic into a well organized and an easy to understand presentation. I was not sure I was going to learn anything new, because I thought I had seen everything. Anyone who has been through a divorce or custody battle has a decent understanding of how the corrupt Family Court system operates. I was unpleasantly surprised to learn some new facts and injustices that I had not seen before. The corruption has always been obvious to me, but I didn't understand the motivation to the level the film exposes.The narration by Dr. Drew was perfect. People who know nothing about Family Court can watch this film and follow it. I strongly recommend this movie to anyone considering marriage, or anyone who is just starting out their divorce or custody action. For most of us, we didn't have the luxury of knowing how corrupt the family courts were until we were neck deep in tears and debt. Thanks to this film, many others will be able to walk into their unfortunate situations with a clearer expectation. The movie revived my promise to myself to stay single until the day I die.