Photo by Ben Rosett. Copyright free. Unsplash.com

Most people, understandably, will do almost anything to avoid going to court for any number of reasons, including the financial cost, the loss of privacy, the inevitable calcification of antagonism between you and someone you married, the pain it causes children and other family members, and the fear of putting your life in the hands of a complete stranger, sitting on a bench at the front of a courtroom. (Not to mention all those movies—think Kramer vs. Kramer, The War of the Roses, or The Squid and the Whale—that act as cautionary tales, the horror stories bounced around the Internet, and those of people you know.)

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