Child custody cases now & then: From Kramer versus Kramer to Marriage Story

• Published date: 01 October 2024
• Author: Alexandra Crampton
• Date: 01 October 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12815

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Child custody cases now & then: From Kramer

versus Kramer to Marriage Story

Alexandra Crampton

Social and Cultural Sciences, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

Correspondence

Alexandra Crampton, Social and Cultural

Sciences, Marquette University, Lalumiere

340, 1310 W Clybourn Street, Milwaukee,

WI, 53233, USA.

Email: alexandra.crampton@marquette.edu

Abstract

In the 1970s, the movie Kramer versus Kramerdramatized the

destructiveness of child custody disputes. It helped inspire

family law reform and careers. The central problem identified

was an adversarialsystem and hostile litigation.The proposed

solution was alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Over time,

these alternatives became an integral part of the family law

response to child custody cases, exceptin cases of vulnerable

parties. Today's parents are under greater legal and social

pressure to resolve disputes without resorting to court. This

can be welcomed and resisted by parents.This article focuses

on parental resistance to dispute resolution over litigation

through a return to Hollywood. The movie Marriage Story is

used to show how parents might feel alienated rather than

relieved by opportunity to cooperatively problem-solve dif-

ferences. Implications are explored in part through drawing

from ethnographic researchon parents who engaged in medi-

ation through a U.S. family court program and through two

Australian Family Relationship Centres (FRC).

KEYWORDS

child custody cases, divorce, divorce movies, family dispute

resolution, parent perspectives in family court cases, parenting

disputes, popular culture, qualitative studies, research

Key points for the family court community

•Popular culture, such as movies, can be used by profes-

sionals to consider why parents may not perceive

DOI: 10.1111/fcre.12815

© 2024 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts.

962 Family Court Rev. 2024;62:962–984.

wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fcre

services and systems according to professional

expectations.

•Comparing two divorce movies, produced 40 years apart,

helps to consider how evolving societal expectations

about custody and disputing may impact parent percep-

tions and behaviors.

•This article uses the author's past research to examine

the depiction of a custody dispute in the movie, Marriage

Story (2019).

•The movie portrayal of contemporary divorce and

research outcomes presented in this article help explain

how and why some parents may feel more alienated than

empowered under today's family dispute resolution

paradigm.

•An example of conflict for some parents in both the

movie Marriage Story and in research study results was

how they felt when advised to avoid court while consid-

ering implications of court oversight and judgment. In

the movie, this is framed as, “Court or No Court.”

Over the past several decades, family law professionals have advocated for law reforms and professional interven-

tions that help feuding parents to resolve child custody disputes. Murphy and Singer (2015) describe this as part of a

shift in family law systems from an “adversarial regime”centered on law to a “dispute resolution regime”that

“deemphasizes legal norms and discourages third-party decision-making”(p. 1). Over time, litigation alternatives that

were once pilot projects and court experiments have become institutionalized, and are supported through additional

services, such as parent education. In many jurisdictions, parent education and/or mediation are mandated, “by stat-

ute or administrative rule”(Salem, 2009). An ideal is to enable parents to avoid court beyond required appearances

and filings. With these efforts have come changes in terminology, such as “parenting dispute”rather than “child cus-

tody case,”and “family dispute resolution,”rather than “alternative dispute resolution.”This shift is even more pro-

nounced in Australia than in the United States. In 2006, National Family Law Reform declared intention to bring a

“culture shift”through legal presumptions of “shared parental responsibility”best supported through “family dispute

resolution”(FDR) (Parkinson, 2013). Parents intending to file child custody cases must first make a “genuine effort”

to resolve conflict through attending and completing FDR or obtain a 601c certificate based on professional assess-

ment of FDR suitability. FDR has assumed roles in family law as both the preferred means of parenting dispute reso-

lution and as a “gatekeeper”(p. 84) to court process and litigation (Schindeler, 2022).

Meanwhile, there have also been major changes within the larger social, political, and economic contexts of par-

enting, marriage, and divorce. One way to consider these larger contexts is through the study of popular culture and

its artifacts, such as movies (Schulz, 2020). Of course, movies are intended to entertain, and fiction allows creative if

not entirely imagined facts. However, movies are also made by writers, actors, and directors who intend to explore

complex truths, such as the realities of divorcing with children. This article compares two divorce movies released

40 years apart (in 1979 and 2019): Kramer versus Kramer (Benton, 2001) and Marriage Story (Baumbach, 2020).

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