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.
In the early 1980s, a
Spokane divorce lawyer convinced a judge
that allowing people to divorce by mail
would save the county time and the divorcing
couple money, according to Joyce Dennison,
former court clerk in Lincoln County. The
judge agreed.
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 just over 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, which had 5,487 filings,
according to state Department of Health
statistics.
By contrast, Skamania
County in southwest Washington -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 here
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.
Pastor John Hammond of the
Harvest Celebration Church, an Assembly of
God congregation about a block away 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," he said. "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.
For his part, Borst has
heard complaints from others about the
county's loose divorce system, but claims he
has never heard complaints from couples
getting divorced.
"Its a pretty complex
situation. Everybody has an opinion on it,"
he says. "Nine of 10 people say there are
too many divorces, except they count theirs
as valid."
Borst says many who
file through his court can't afford an
expensive divorce, and shortening the time
it takes couples to dissolve their marriages
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 says.
When both parties agree
to split their assets and on child-care
responsibilities, an attorney isn't
necessary, the judge says.
The number of divorced
couples who later file to amend their
divorce decrees is about the same as those
who appear in court with attorneys, he says.
Lincoln County charges
a $120 filing fee and another $20 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 for its general fund,
law library and legal-facilitator program
after the state took its $206,000 cut, she
said.
The filings come from counties all across the state. Only about 40 a year are
from Lincoln County residents, about average for its size. Semprimoznik
estimates 80 percent of the filings are from Western Washington.
