St. Louis County to get new family law building?

On behalf of The Marks Law Firm, L.L.C posted in Divorce on Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Everyone knows that divorce is a legal, emotional and physical separation of two people who have been married. One aspect of divorce that sometimes gets overlooked is the actual place where the legal process of divorce occurs.

In St. Louis County, much of the divorce process happens in the family courts building on South Brentwood Boulevard. That might change one day soon, however. The county is considering presenting to voters next April the choice to build a new facility.

Councilman Steve Stenger of Affton is taking the necessary steps to place the measure on next April’s ballot. He’s introducing a resolution calling for the $100 million bond project.

He said a new family law courts building should be erected for a couple of reasons. First of all, he said, the current building contains asbestos, a health hazard to the employees in the building every day and also to the people with pending family law issues before the court.

The second issue he considers important is that the current building might itself heighten tensions between those people involved in divorce, child custody, visitation and child support disputes, among others.

“The building is really not designed appropriately to handle the functions that are taking place there,” he said. “Parties in very contentious divorce and child custody cases are not cordoned off from one another. It’s not unusual to find adverse parties standing in a hallway across from each other, cases where you have real animosity.”

Obviously, the voters of St. Louis County will decide whether or not the time is right to build a new courthouse, but Stenger makes a valid point about thrusting together people in acrimonious disputes.

However, it’s very possible that those people will be able to discuss things reasonably after sitting down with experienced family law attorneys and hashing out differences and coming to mutually beneficial divorce agreements.

Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “St. Louis County Council to weigh bond issue for courts” by Paul Hampel: Sept. 20, 2011

Recent Posts
Archives
Archives
Categories
Categories

You need an experienced divorce attorney on your side.