Jantz v. Brewer

¶1concurring.

¶2I concur. I write separately solely to express dismay and concern with respect to the complexity Missouri trial judges face in resolving custody issues.

¶3Missouri statutes applicable to child custody cases and appellate decisions applying those statutes have become excrutiatingly complex. Statutes include detailed “grocery lists” of factors trial courts are required to consider in determining custody. At the same time they mandate that custody be determined “in the best interest of the child.” See, e.g., § 452.375.1 As the principal opinion illustrates, a proposed change of place of residence of the child or of “any party entitled to custody or visitation of the child” now requires detailed action by the party seeking to change his or her residence. § 452.377.

¶4Each session of the legislature seems to produce additional requirements for litigants and attorneys involved in child custody cases, and the courts that hear those cases, to meet. Perhaps this seemingly never-ending complexity is why the courts of this state are witnessing ever growing domestic relations dockets.

¶5It has been suggested that people involved in litigation perceive the judicial system as costing too much, taking too long and never ending. The myriad of domestic relations statutes directed to child custody issues does not alleviate that perception.

¶6Trial judges apply the law as it is given to them. They apply the law to the particular facts of cases before them. They do *921this daily. In most areas of the law they do this without detailed directives outlining factors they are to consider.

¶7Does the complexity of Missouri’s detailed child custody statutes result in better decisions for children than would be rendered in a less complex legal environment? Would the needs of children and their families be equally well served (or perhaps better served) if detailed road maps of what judges were to consider were eliminated? Would the system better serve those who find their lives affected by it if child custody decisions were left to the sound judgment of trial judges without directives concerning what the exercise of sound judgment entails? Would the cost of litigation decline? Would many of those cases that seem to find themselves continually in and out of the system finally reach an end? Would cases such as this find solutions without requiring additional trials and additional appeals?

¶8The trial of domestic relations cases, including child custody issues, is expensive. It has become increasingly time consuming. Are the many procedural details we impose on trials of domestic relations cases, generally, and child custody cases, specifically, necessary in order to reach just results, results that are in the best interests of children? I think not.