Mail-order divorce just the ticket in rural county
By John K. Wiley
ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 26, 2003
DAVENPORT, Wash. – Monday is Divorce Day at the Lincoln County Courthouse.
In the morning, Assistant County Clerk Mary Gamble brings bins and mailbags from the post office full of new filings for dissolution of marriage.
In his office one floor up, Superior Court Judge Philip Borst gets writer's cramp signing final decrees in marathons that can last six hours or more.
Welcome to the divorce capital of Washington, the only county in the state where marriages can be dissolved by mail without a court appearance.
Paralegals and attorneys from across the state swamp County Clerk Peggy Semprimoznik's office each week with filings for clients anxious to be shed of spouses more quickly and inexpensively than in the counties where they live.
This wheat-farming county of slightly more than 10,000 residents last year handled 4,035 domestic filings, most of them divorces.
That's more than any other county except King, home to more than 1.75 million residents in and around Seattle, which had 5,487 filings, according to state Department of Health statistics.
By contrast, Skamania County in southwestern Washington state, with about as many residents as Lincoln County, had 83 domestic filings in 2002.
"Realistically, there's a lot of reasons for people getting divorced," Borst said. "If I had my rathers, I'd rather people stayed married and had a happy marriage."
But the judge said he's not saddened by the volume of marriages that are ended with a stroke of his pen, because many of those seeking divorces in his court have tried marriage counseling without success.
The ease with which a couple can legally separate or divorce in Davenport does upset a Washington-based family group and some church pastors in this county seat about 35 miles west of Spokane.
Typically, Borst's signature makes a Lincoln County divorce final in a little more than the 90-day waiting period mandated by the state. In some of the state's larger counties, where court appearances are required, court dockets are crowded with other matters, and divorces can take a year or longer.
The Rev. John Hammond of Harvest Celebration Church, an Assembly of God congregation about a block from the sandstone courthouse, is among those who don't welcome the county's status as a divorce haven.
"What kind of message are we sending?" Hammond asked in a recent Wenatchee World article. "We have to consider what this means for families."
On its Web page, Families Northwest, a pro-marriage organization in Bellevue, calls the Lincoln County system "a travesty."
"The judges who set this up are unintentionally, but in all reality, undermining couples and robbing families of the opportunity to stay intact," the group says.
Semprimoznik estimates her office has handled more than 40,000 divorce filings in the 13 years she has worked there. She says she has little contact with the couples calling it quits, but thinks the county's quickie divorces are appreciated.
"They're going to get divorced anyway," she said. "If they don't have to take time off from work, it saves money they usually don't have."
For his part, Borst has heard complaints from others – but never from the couples involved.
He said many who file through his court can't afford an expensive divorce, and shortening the time it takes eases the strain on them and the children.
"From practical experience, once they get to court and fight, they can't agree, and kids suffer and they suffer," Borst said.
When both parties agree to split their assets and on child-care responsibilities, an attorney isn't necessary, the judge said.
Lincoln County also makes money on the arrangement, from the $120 filing fee and the $20 charge when the dissolution becomes final. The county last year earned $489,000 from domestic filings, such as divorces and annulments, Semprimoznik said. Of that, the county netted about $283,000 and the state took $206,000.
