- How would you share a baby?
- Well... I would say, I'm the girl,
you should let me get the baby!
(audience laughs)
(peaceful upbeat music)
- Hello.
- Hi.
- Hi, I'm Malachi.
- Hey, nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
- My name is Kalen.
- My name is Logan.
- I'm Nathan, nice to meet you both.
- What is your job?
- I am a divorce attorney.
- What do you mainly do?
- I mainly help people get divorces.
- Wait so, are you a divorced lawyer?
- Am I a divorced lawyer? - Yeah.
- I am both a divorce lawyer
that is a lawyer who practices divorce law,
and I am also incidentally a divorced lawyer,
I had been married and am no longer. (laughs)
- Do you know what divorce is?
- ...No?
- Do you know anybody with a stepmom or stepdad?
- My cousin, because her parents broke apart.
- Right, and that's what divorce is,
it's when two people who were married decide,
at least one of them,
decide that they don't want to be married anymore
and so they unmarry each other.
- I don't understand why anyone would need a lawyer
when they wanna, when people wanna be divorced.
- When people get married,
one of the things that happens there
is that they're entering into a legal agreement
with the government to do things certain ways,
mostly having to do with money.
How do we divide the money?
Right, two people are married for awhile,
they've got however much money
that they've saved up and put together, - Yeah.
- And all this stuff, and how do we divide that up?
What do your parents share as part of being married?
- They share love, they share drinks together,
they share me. (laughs)
- Wait, what if the same person wants the same baby?
What would you do?
- What I would do is I would help at least one of them
figure out how the baby could be shared
in a way that is best for the baby.
- What about like holidays, like Christmas? - Yeah.
- Or Thanksgiving?
- Especially Halloween.
- Usually they take turns so one year the kids would be
with one parent and the next year
they'd be with the other parent.
In some very special cases
parents still get along well enough
and they family will still do holidays together.
How would you share a baby?
- Well...I would say I'm the girl,
you should let me get the baby.
(audience laughs)
- You know that's a pretty common approach
to the circumstance in my experience.
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] So you think the girl
should always get the kids?
- I would get the baby for 50 years,
and then the other person would get the baby for one year.
- You imagine yourself taking care of the baby for 50 years?
- Mm... yep!
- How old will the baby be at the end of that?
- I have no idea.
(audience laughs)
- When parents get divorced do kids have a say
in like which parent they go with or how often?
- Technically, no not really.
We really try to keep kids out of the position of having
to feel like they're choosing between their parents.
- If that happened, I could not decide.
- Do either of you know anybody
whose parents have had a divorce?
- My grandma and my grandpa and
my other grandmam and grandpa.
- My mom says it was like bad.
- You know my parents were also divorced
when I was I think sixteen?
It was pretty bad,
it's a pretty unpleasant experience a lot of the time,
but it doesn't have to be.
- What is the most common cause of divorce?
- Usually just one person if I'm honest,
just doesn't really, just isn't feeling it anymore.
- What if one parent wants to be divorced
but the other one doesn't.
- That's a good question. - Oh.
- Usually those are really extra hard.
A lot of times the person who doesn't want the divorce
will be a lot angrier about the divorce happening
and people can do some pretty mean things sometimes
when they're feeling angry and hurt like that.
- Do you have to break up people when they're fighting?
- I have come close twice, but no,
I've never actually had to do that.
If people are having that much trouble getting along,
we usually keep them out of the same room.
- What's the weirdest thing people
have fought over when they got divorced?
- The weirdest thing is pets.
They had a big fight over a snake once.
- A snake? - A snake.
And they both were arguing about
who took more care of the snake
and who fed the snake more often,
they couldn't even agree on who bought the snake
in the first place, they wouldn't let,
it almost- we had an agreement in place,
for this stupid snake; this happens absurdly frequently.
- What are all the steps from the beginning of a divorce
all the way til like, all divorced?
- The first thing is you gotta decide you want a divorce,
and then at least one person
has to file a petition for a divorce,
and then you have to get a set of temporary orders
which would mean a temporary parenting plan,
findings of fact and conclusions of law document,
they'll be a final parenting plan,
a final child support order with worksheets.
Sometimes you have an attorney certificate of compliance,
if you had to do that but that's also
just for settled and agreed cases.
I think that's it.
(audience laughs)
Oh I forgot about the trial brief, you need a trial brief.
- Wow. (laughs)
- Is it worth all that?
Like confusion.
- That is a really, really good question.
That is one of the reasons I think that so many people,
including myself, I work very, very hard
to try to keep people from having to do all of that.
- So what do you guys think about marriage,
think you'd ever get married?
- Right now, not hoping for it, but I probably will.
- Yeah how come, why do you think that?
- Because that's what happens with everyone.
(audience laughs)