Gender Bias In Family Court

Although people claim there is and is not bias against men in family court, the reality is there is little hard evidence to support one side or the other. We simply do not track the statistics. 

We do, however, know that women initiate the vast majority of divorces, are the recipient of alimony in over 98% of cases where it is awarded, and are far more likely to be awarded child custody.   

Why this is true is a matter of opinion. 

In my case, even though I was doing the majority of parental work and despite the fact that my ex-wife committed perjury and her lawyer committed fraud, I had to pay a massive amount of money to my ex.

In the end the money I paid was worth it because my kids turned out pretty well. Mostly, I believe, because they chose to live with me despite the court awarding joint custody. 

So, admittedly and without concrete evidence, I do believe there is bias against men in family court. Indeed, if the only thing to change in my case were the genders, my hypothetically now male ex would have spent time in jail and I would have been awarded full child custody, child support, and alimony. 

For another view, I ran across this article from a law firm on the matter of gender bias.  

From our experience working with families, we have realized family court can be biased towards mothers and against fathers in custody disputes. Many fathers we have represented can personally attest to experiencing a negative outcome in a custody dispute because of gender bias in the court system. Often, fathers will make the mistake of assuming that because we are a nation of laws not men, they will get a fair hearing by a judge or hearing officer who is unbiased. This is not always the case.