Attiitudes of Attorneys and Judges Toward Joint Custody and Its Litigation

Abstract

The purposes of this research were: (1) to determine the consequences of joint custody as perceived by judges and attorneys (2) to determine whether attitudes toward the concept of joint custody influence judges' and attorneys' attitudes toward the Louisiana joint custody law, and (3) to determine the relationship between attitudes of judges and the percentage of awards for joint custody. Forty-four judges and 110 attorneys completed and returned the questionnaire used in this paper. It was concluded that judges and attorneys views some of the beneficial consequences of joint custody as occuring more frequently than others and more frequently than the detrimental consequences. Attitudes toward joint custody and attitudes toward the Louisiana statute were not found to be significantly related. A positive correlation was found between judges' perceptions of the frequency with both parents and the percentages of cases in which judges award joint custody. No significant correlation was found bewteen percentag...