The Honorable Bob Riley
Governor of Alabama
600 Dexter Avenue, Room N-104
Montgomery, AL 36130

Dear Governor Riley:

I enjoyed seeing you at the Space and Rocket Center on Saturday night, and I appreciate your interest in issues that affect the families and children of Alabama. I practiced law for over 30 years before my election to the bench on November 5, 2002, and specialized in domestic relations cases for the last 15 years of that practice. My candidacy for Circuit Judge was based upon my strong feeling that cases which impact the lives of our children and grandchildren are the most important cases that come before our courts, and unfortunately many times do not get treated as such. Madison County was the largest county in Alabama
without a Family Court before my election. After I was elected, we adopted a two- phase plan to establish a Family Court, with the first phase being in effect now. I am specializing in domestic relations cases, and presently handle five-sixths of all of the domestic relations cases filed here in Madison County, which total almost 3,000 cases per year.

A truly sad statistic is that over 6,000 adults, and thousands of children, have their lives affected by domestic relations cases each year, just in Madison County alone. The statistics statewide are just as staggering. The last statistics that I have seen indicate that over one-half of all children in our great country will live in a single parent home at some point in their childhood, and one in 24 children in America live with neither of their parents. I have been assigned divorce cases in my court in which the case was filed after only days of marriage and a case where the parties have been married for over 60 years. Those poor people in the latter case were married four years before I was born.

While I practiced law, I told everyone who came into my office that I hoped that they would not get divorced, and that they should do everything possible to avoid having to go through a divorce. After a year on the bench, that feeling is only strengthened. It is far too easy in Alabama to get married, and is just as easy to get divorced. The most commonly used ground for divorce in Alabama is incompatibility of temperament.” All that a party has to show in court to get a divorce on that ground is that they are not happy, that they and their spouse have different views, goals and desires in life, and that they can no longer live together happily as husband and wife. Unfortunately, even if the other spouse testifies that
they still love their spouse, that there are no problems in the marriage that can’t be fixed, and that they will do whatever it takes to make their marriage work and keep the family together, the trial judge is still required to enter a divorce on the ground of incompatibility of temperament.

Once the parties get to my courtroom in a divorce case, it is generally too late to help that family stay together. I am strongly in favor of measures that that would work on the front end of the marital relationship, that is, before and at the time the parties get married. I would like to see the following established legally:

(1) Premarital counseling should be mandatory for everyone who gets married in the State of Alabama. While most ministers require premarital counseling before marrying a couple, there is no such requirement generally. While premarital counseling will not necessarily prevent a divorce, I feel strongly that it will better prepare a couple to handle the stresses that are inevitable in a marriage from time to time, and help that couple avoid throwing up their hands
and giving up on the marriage at the first sign of problems.

(2) Covenant marriage should be available in Alabama, as it is in several other states. A covenant marriage requires the couple to basically sign a contract which establishes their intention to be married for life, and establishes more rigorous requirements to be able to dissolve that marriage by divorce, including a reasonable waiting period, and mandatory marriage counseling before a divorce decree can be entered. In addition, the grounds for divorce available under a covenant marriage are more restrictive and require a degree of fault.

While I appreciate the fact that Alabama is facing many problems, and certainly join with you in your drive to establish accountability in government, it is my strong feeling that we need to also place a priority on accountability in our homes, and the strengthening of our families. We are raising generations of children and grandchildren who think that divorce, substance abuse, adultery, and domestic violence are a normal way of life. Those children and grandchildren are going to be the adults and leaders in our society in the future. I would like to see a statewide initiative, led by you, to save our families. I would be happy to serve you and this State in any way you ask to further that cause. All it would take to convince you would be for you to sit in my courtroom during a typical trial week, and to see first hand what supposedly loving parents are saying and doing to each other in divorce cases. It is tragic, and if not abated, will detrimentally affect our State and country for years to come.

While I appreciate the fact that we cannot change society overnight, we can start the movement that will put that change in motion. What a tremendous legacy that would be for your administration to leave to the children and grandchildren of this State.

Very truly yours,
William K. Bell

WKB:dm