Of those cases, most were closed as a result of counsel and advice, brief service, negotiated settlement or some other result that did not involve a judicial decision to end the marriage. In many of the cases where clients received assistance on issues relating to the dissolution of marriage, the clients did not actually wind up dissolving their marriages. In situations where the marital relationship is in trouble but has not irretrievably broken down, grantees often refer clients to counselling or other social services, help the family qualify for statutory benefits or subsidized housing, help one spouse qualify for job training, or a host of other services that can help the family stay together and work out its problems. Because of the overwhelming need for legal assistance in other areas, including other family law matters, most legal services programs do not handle simple dissolution of marriage cases, such as no-fault divorce. Those divorce cases that are taken generally involve serious issues such as child custody, child support and particularly, domestic violence, where the safety and security of children and one of the spouses is at stake.
Domestic violence is an issue in a high percentage of the divorce, annulment or separation cases.
Divorce, annulment or legal separation is often the only way that an abused spouse can protect herself or her children from the effects of domestic violence. It allows them to create a legal framework for permanent custody and financial support for children of the marriage and to enter into new, more stable relationships and to form new families. Divorce may be the only appropriate remedy in other cases where a spouse has been abandoned or where one spouse is in prison and the remaining spouse wishes to form a new family so that children can grow up in a two parent home. They provide legal assistance to dissolve a marriage under circumstances where the marriage is already unsalvageable. Poor women should not be forced to remain in violent, failed marriages where they and their children may be at risk of serious physical and emotional injury, simply because they do not have money to hire an attorney.