INDIANA LAW


As this blog entry is about to prove, I know nothing about divorce law in Indiana. Indeed I do not profess to do so. After all there wouldn't be much opportunity to use any knowledge I might have, working as I do in Darlington. That said, there are occasions when a dual qualification in Scottish law (another alien concept) would be extremely useful with the border not so far away. Mind the issues and emotions facing anyone going through divorce are universal, regardless of where in the world they are. Sam Hasler who has paid me the honour of mentioning this blog on various occasions in his own family law blog has indicated that whilst I don’t have much to say about Indiana family law there are still many similarities in the people we both seek to help and the problems they face.

Lately we are being entertained in the new pedestrian heart of Darlington by a variety of musicians. Among the most tuneful of these is a band of men of American Indian origin, dressed in authentic costume including head-dress & buffalo skins. Their act is dominated by musical pipes that replicate the sound of the wind and occasionally they can be seen sitting cross-legged smoking a peace-pipe.

I wonder if the peace-pipe still plays any part in the modern law of Indiana. It could surely be put to good use in the resolution of acrimonious divorce cases, or does Indiana, like the UK, ban smoking in public buildings? I know not, but maybe Sam will tell us in one of his blog entries.

Comments

Sam Hasler said…
I am blushing. Seriously.

No smoking of the peace pipe here and no Indians in Indiana. Although I did convince a former cousin-in-law of mine that we did. She lived in Connecticut then. I am pretty sure she had never been further west than New York City.

We do not have the division between barristers and solicitors. Some of my practice is transactional and some of it is litigation.

The city I live in is what we now like to call post-industrial. Once upon a time we had major several General Motors factories. Now we are not sure what we are but the factories are gone. Luckily, I am about 47 miles from the state capitol of Indianapolis.

Yes, we ban smoking from our government offices.

Divorce law is a bit different - in the legal terms. We have a residency requirement of six months in state and 60 days in county but it is a no-fault state. The petitioner says to the judge that the marriage is irretrievably broken and that is all that needs proven. I have long had the theory that Indiana's divorce law is pretty simple (best interests of the children, presumption of a 50-50 split of the property) but that gets complicated by the people. Reading your blog and other blogs I see that is true.I would call that a good thing - it does reinforce our basic shared humanity.

Thank you for the kind words. I do like your style of writing. I tend to the pedantic far too often and you are quite the opposite.
Judith said…
Thanks for clarifying that Sam.

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