Does A Leopard Change Its Spots?

Every now and then, I come across an article that falls under the title "the truth is stranger than fiction". In Tysons' Corner, Virginia a man has chosen to wear a sandwich board stating that he's a cheater in hopes of winning his wife back after infidelity. Whether or not this is some sort of strange publicity ploy is still up for debate, but its an interesting tactic in winning your spouse back after being unfaithful. I would say that as much as 25% of our divorce clients have dealt with infidelity at some point in their marriage, and I don't think that most of them would take someone back just because they decided to publicly announce to the world that they cheated. Would this work if your spouse had cheated on you? Do you think that it would help your relationship and ensure a better marriage? I'm always interested to hear other people's perspective on the articles that I post to this blog. Let me know if you think that this guy and the parties' marriage has a chance of survival.

Should You Leave Him?

There is a new movie coming out this weekend called "The Women" which is a remake of a 1939 movie where a woman finds out that her husband has cheated and she contemplates whether she should stay or whether she should go. I've heard one of the Judge's in Orange County, Florida state that cheating is a character flaw and not any one's fault. While I'm not sure whether I believe that or not, there is something to be said for whether cheating is a character flaw or a symptom of a bad marriage. Divorce has grave consequences, financially and emotionally, however, do those consequences outweigh the emotional toll of "letting them get away with it"? I'm not sure that I personally know the answer to that question, but what I can tell you is that as a family law attorney, one of the most common reasons why people divorce is infidelity and it is usually infidelity that has occurred on more than one occasion. Does forgiveness allow someone permission to cheat in the future? The following article talks about whether or not you should divorce someone if they cheat and has several comments after the article from people who voice their opinion on what they would do. What would you do?

http://www.ajc.com/health/content/shared-blogs/ajc/parenting/entries/2008/09/11/must_you_divorc.html