Legtislator wants jury trials for divorce proceedings

A leading critic of Iowa’s no-fault divorce law hopes to convince the Iowa Legislature to allow jury trials for divorce proceedings. Representative Dan Boddicker, a republican from Tipton, says a jury might render a fairer decision than a judge.Boddicker says jury trials might be preferable when a divorce involves decisions about which parent gets custody of the kids. He says he knows of a case where there was an affair and the person who had the affair won the bulk of the estate and child custody in what he calls a totally unjust situation.Boddicker says a jury of your peers might be more inclined to sort through which spouse caused the divorce, and therefore which spouse should be entitled to which assets.Boddicker says the marriage contract is the least-enforced contract in America. He was among a group of lawmakers who tried a few years ago to toss out Iowa’s no-fault divorce law which allows couples to divorce without citing cheating or other faults as the cause of the break-up.