In Nebraska, a Culture of Shared Parenting and a Decline in Court Filings

November 13, 2020 by Robert Franklin, JD, Member, National Board of Directors

Sometimes it’s what doesn’t happen that’s important. 

On November 3, the Nebraska Court of Appeals decided seven cases.  Not one was a family law matter.

Why is that a big deal?  Well, by itself it’s not.  But a look at the caseloads of family courts in the state shows that the absence of a family law case fits neatly into a pattern – the declining reliance on courts to decide child custody cases.  From 2015 to 2019, family law filings at the trial level have declined almost 10% in Nebraska.  There’s no indication that people are actually divorcing less, but only that they’re not asking judges to decide the issues.  Parents are deciding those issues themselves.

That raises the question “why?”  Although no one has studied the matter, it seems very likely that the change comes as a result of judges’ increasing tendency to order equal or near-equal parenting time and equal legal custody for parents.  It has long been predicted that an equal parenting presumption in the law would lead to more amicable divorces and more agreements about parenting time between divorcing spouses.  Indeed, following Kentucky’s enactment of its shared parenting law, that’s exactly what’s happened.

Of course Nebraska has no equal parenting presumption, but, as this blog has scrupulously chronicled, shared parenting forces in the state, while not changing the law, have definitely changed the culture regarding parenting time post-divorce and the importance of fathers to kids.  Time and again, Nebraska’s shared parenting advocates pen op-eds for major publications and are met with little or no resistance.  Put simply, the anti-father/anti-shared parenting advocates are a spent force.  They have no legitimate arguments to make for their position and the public, the press and even judges now appear to be convinced of the truth – that if we truly value children, as we claim to, then we’ll make sure they have equal access to each parent when the adults split up.

In Nebraska, the days may be gone when parents enter family court knowing that Mom will get sole or primary custody and that, if Dad wants real parenting time, he’s got to fight tooth and nail to get it.  That always exacerbated the already-existing conflict between the two, drew out divorce cases unreasonably and lined lawyers’ pockets.  Now, parents may be realizing that they enter the fray on equal terms and that neither will lose meaningful time with their kids.  Given that, what’s to fight about?  And the less they fight, the less they spend, the fewer ulcers they develop, the fewer sleepless nights they endure, etc.  With access to the children all but assured, parents sensibly make things easier on themselves and on the court system.

Shared parenting does all that.  More importantly, it’s what’s best for kids.  What’s not to like?  It looks like Nebraskans have gotten the message.