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Life & Times Transcript
1/11/07 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- You may want to end your marriage in the worst way, but is do-it-yourself divorce the best way? Caron Caines>> The story that I always think of is the woman who was pregnant and was remarried believing that she had been lawfully divorced and she found out that she wasn't lawfully married to her second husband. Val Zavala>> And then, it gives you a nice jolt and warms you up on a cold day, but what does coffee do for the people who grow it? A new film offers food for thought with your next latte. It's all straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times. Announcer>> Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. With additional support for Life and Times from The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation. Val Zavala>> The vast majority of couples in California who want a divorce do it themselves avoiding the cost and stress of lawyers, but do-it-yourself divorces should come with a warning label: make sure to dot the i's and cross the t's. As Sam Louie tells us, one woman thought she was divorced only to discover she was still married. [Film Clip] Sam Louie>> Each year, more than two million Americans make a sacred vow to each other. [Film Clip] Sam Louie>> But life doesn't always turn out the way couples expect. Statistics show that nearly fifty percent of all marriages end in divorce and, as much time and energy goes into a wedding, getting a divorce can be just as much work especially if you do it yourself. Not only are there reams of forms to fill out, but the paperwork can often sit unprocessed in the court system for years. In California, eighty percent of people handle their own divorces and, out of that number, more than a third of the divorces have not been finalized. In some of the cases, the couples have reconciled, but in other instances, the divorces are languishing because of incomplete paperwork or paperwork that has not been filled out properly. Anna Soberanis is one such case. She filed for divorce in July of 2003, but now, almost four years later, Anna is still legally married, her divorce not yet finalized. Anna Soberanis>> I don't know what really happened. I didn't get an explanation what really went on. Sam Louie>> And all the while, Anna assumed she was single again. Anna Soberanis>> I was just living my life. I dated. I went on a couple of dates, but nothing really serious. But, yes, I was thinking, okay, we're divorced. He's living his life, I'm living mine, so I don't have to live with the guilt. Sam Louie>> That meant taking care of her two sons, working full-time and studying to become a United States citizen. >> "Who said "Give me liberty or give me death?" Anna Soberanis>> "Patrick Henry." Sam Louie>> Anna is an immigrant from Belize. It was during the citizenship process that she realized her divorce was not finalized. As a legally married applicant, Anna was required to get important documents from her now estranged husband. Anna Soberanis>> His tax papers for the past three years, birth certificate. I mean, I don't know where he's at. I don't have any contact with him. Sam Louie>> Without the documents, she could be barred from taking her citizenship test, so Anna was determined to get to the bottom of her unfinished divorce. She went straight to the Los Angeles County Superior Court. Anna Soberanis>> "They said it would be a sixteen-week process. However, I haven't received any reply from them and that's why I'm here today to see if my divorce is final." Sam Louie>> After an hour and a half of waiting, she got what she came for. >> "Okay, as of today, you're legally divorced." Anna Soberanis>> "Oh, that's wonderful." >> "Here's your entry to make sure." Anna Soberanis>> "Okay." >> "If there's anything else you need, you're certified through the court." Anna Soberanis>> "Okay, great." Sam Louie>> Self-represented divorces have taken off in the past decade partly because of the rise in divorces, but also because of the cost. Doing it yourself costs less than three hundred fifty dollars, whereas hiring an attorney can easily run into the thousands. Judge Robert Schnider>> The highest billing attorneys are probably in the seven or eight hundred dollar an hour area and the average attorneys might be in the two or three hundred dollar area, so the cost of the attorneys has risen substantially. Sam Louie>> But that also means more unfinished divorces, as many as ten thousand in Los Angeles County alone. Judge Robert Schnider>> We've had a concern for some time about the buildup of cases and the backlog. We've heard from other counties, anecdotally again, about some of the problems that they have had. Sam Louie>> Judge Robert Schnider is the supervising judge of Family Law for Los Angeles County Superior Court. He says historically the court system has shied away from taking action. Judge Robert Schnider>> Traditionally, we're thought of as merely the mutual deciders, the callers of balls and strikes. We have to wait until people bring their cases to us and then only act on things as were brought into the courtroom by filing the pleadings. Sam Louie>> But the county is now being more assertive. In December, the county established this self-help resource center. It's a central place where people filing for divorce on their own can get help from staff attorneys and trained volunteers. Judge Robert Schnider>> There's really been a tectonic shift in the court system taking a more aggressive approach to guaranteed access to the system. Access to the system includes not only getting into the courthouse, but getting through the system and being aware of the papers. Sam Louie>> There's also a pilot program where judges are re-examining stalled cases. Judge Robert Schnider>> If people do show up, the judge is attempting to find out why they're stuck, what's happening, why they aren't moving forward. >> "I have another appointment to see the judge on the 18th." Sam Louie>> There are now nearly a dozen self-help centers scattered throughout the county. Some are run by the court system. Others are run by the neighborhood legal services. All encounter stories of shock and disbelief. Caron Caines>> The story that I always think of is the woman who was pregnant and was remarried believing that she'd been lawfully divorced and she found out that she wasn't lawfully married to her second husband. Sam Louie>> Caron Caines is the managing attorney with the nonprofit neighborhood legal services. The self-help program started seven years ago. Caron Caines>> When we started asking folks, "Why haven't you completed your divorce process?", frequently we would get the answer, "I have. I'm done. I filed my papers." Sam Louie>> Caines blames the complexity of the paperwork for the high number of incomplete divorces. She believes this burdensome process is denying access to many. Caron Caines>> A typical divorce for somebody is going to take three to four separate filing packets. When I say a packet, each packet will have from ten to twenty forms. Sam Louie>> And when a divorce is final, it's simply marked as a dissolution with the termination date listed. Critics say that's not enough, that the system should do more. Caron Caines>> Why not do a divorce certificate? You have a marriage certificate and then get a divorce certificate. I would say, suitable for framing. Then folks would know, aha, this is the point at which I now know I'm divorced. Bonnie Hough>> My only concern with a certificate is just the sense that people are overwhelmed because we have a lot of forms. There's a lot of paper that you have to file and I'm not sure that people would necessarily know that that's the piece of paper that they're missing. Sam Louie>> What is certain is that the courts realize do-it-yourself divorces need greater clarification. Without clear divorce papers, people could find themselves not just married, but married twice. Fortunately, Anna doesn't have to worry about that anymore. Anna Soberanis>> It shouldn't take this long. Like I said, I filed back in July of 2003. Three years to be divorced? That's kind of long. I'm glad that I wasn't thinking of marrying someone else. Sam Louie>> I'm Sam Louie for Life and Times. Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, plus transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org, scroll down the page and click on "Life and Times". Val Zavala>> Los Angeles's mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, doesn't lose many battles, but he lost a big one recently in his attempt to take over the Los Angeles Unified School District. A court slapped him on the wrist, saying hands off the schools. So where does the mayor go from here? Villaraigosa made education his number one issue in his campaign for mayor even though the mayor legally doesn't have any control over Los Angeles schools. So after winning office, he went to Sacramento and used his clout there to get a bill passed, a bill that hands partial control of Los Angeles schools over to the mayor. Predictably, the Los Angeles School Board challenged the legislation in court and, last month, a judge handed down her ruling in favor of the school district, saying the legislation was unconstitutional. I talked to Joel Rubin, a reporter at the Los Angeles Times, to find out what all this means. Joel Rubin>> It was a sweeping defeat for the mayor or a sweeping victory for the school board. The central idea that the school board and the parents' groups and other groups that joined the school board in the lawsuit were making was that the State Constitution and the City Charter are very clear in who has the authority to run schools, whether they be in Los Angeles or anywhere in California, that there are these entities called school districts and that they are vested with certain powers and that you can't just willy-nilly start authorizing others, whether it be the mayor or, as was brought up in the courtroom, a Jiffy Lube operator to run the schools. The judge agreed, saying that even though the legislature had passed the bill and that the governor had signed it, they were stepping beyond the bounds granted to them by the Constitution and by the City Charter. Val Zavala>> So he lost this one. What are his next options? Joel Rubin>> Well, the mayor very quickly filed an appeal and he filed that appeal with the State Appeals Court. At the same time, he's avowed to go to the State Supreme Court and ask them to handle the case directly and skip that intermediary process in order to fast track this even more rapidly, the assumption being that the Supreme Court is going to weigh in on this at some point, so let's just get it to them sooner rather than later. Val Zavala>> And the sooner, the better, because if they should uphold the legislation, then he has to meet these deadlines for identifying the schools that he himself would take control over. Joel Rubin>> The timing is becoming very relevant very quickly. It's not a simple process, what he's proposing, what the legislation calls for. He has to identify which schools, they have to get a lot of data from the district and from the schools themselves. There are a lot of communications with the school sites, the principals, the teachers, the parents, and then continue to develop a plan of what they expect to do with these schools, if and when they take control of them. So it's not a quick turnaround and he's going to need a lot of time to do it if they are going to be authorized to do it. With time ticking, his team is getting concerned that there won't be enough time to do this right if they are allowed to do it at all. Val Zavala>> Now political analysts -- I know you're a reporter, but nevertheless, political analysts have looked at this and said Villaraigosa has spent a lot of political capital on this issue and some people felt from the beginning that it was a mistake and it's kind of turning out to be. What do you think the political ramifications are? Joel Rubin>> Well, the mayor is famous for turning what would seem to be a negative situation into a positive. I think a lot of people are curious to see how he plays this one out. Education became the issue of the mayoral campaign and, whether he wanted to or not, he was brought into an election campaign where he had to address education issues. Val Zavala>> But technically, the mayor doesn't really have power over schools. Joel Rubin>> At the time, he did not. But when education did become an issue of the campaign, Mayor Villaraigosa grabbed onto it and he has not let go. Whether people agree or disagree with the idea of mayoral control of schools -- which is not unique to Los Angeles. There are other major urban school districts where the mayor has gone and taken control -- I don't think anybody can disagree with the fact that the mayor has really shown a determination on this issue. Even in the face of challenges and even in the face of this court ruling, he's vowed to fight on and he has not bowed out. Perhaps there would have been an opportunity to do that. So how he handles it from here is anybody's guess. He does have, one would assume, a lot of political capital riding on this and, if he gets defeated at the higher court level, it will be interesting to see what impact that has on him as a politician. Val Zavala>> Any chance at all that it might end up before the voters? Joel Rubin>> Well, that was an issue that was brought up in the earlier stages of this fight. The school district, the School Board and other opponents of the mayor's campaign said, well, take it to the voters. Let them decide if this is a good idea or not. The mayor took some hits for not taking it to the voters. He instead made the decision and the calculation to take it to lawmakers in Sacramento where he has a lot of sway. He got it passed up in Sacramento and was able to call in a lot of political capital. Val Zavala>> Because that was the path of least resistance and that it would be tougher to get voters to back him. Joel Rubin>> One would assume that he saw an easier path to getting what he was hoping to approve through legislation as opposed to a public referendum. Whether this would be a public referendum now, I don't know. I don't think it's too late. I think he could try to gather the signatures and get it on a future ballot. There's been so much discussion about it now and so much debate about it. I'm not sure if he has a better chance or a worse chance. It would be an interesting question to see. Val Zavala>> Well, it will be interesting to see what happens, but there's no question that he's a determined guy. Joel Rubin, thank you so much. Joel Rubin>> My pleasure. Announcer>> To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address: Life and Times 4401 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90027 You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org. Larry Mantle>> Welcome to FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC. Our first film this week is based on a real life southern California murder story, the case of Jesse James Hollywood. "Alpha Dog" stars Emile Hirsch, Justin Timberlake, Bruce Willis and Sharon Stone, and it's written and directed by Nick Cassavetes. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> I'm joined this week by critics Jean Oppenheimer of Village Voice Media and Henry Sheehan of henrysheehan.com. Henry, what did you think of "Alpha Dog"? Henry Sheehan>> Well, it's not a good movie, you know, basically. It has a poor script. The director has trouble with his story-telling techniques. He has to resort to that kind of pseudo-documentary style of having one of the characters sit down in front of a camera and act as if he or she is being interviewed as if it's almost like a news story. Those bits are just dropped down into a conventional narrative, so they don't really match up very well. The story is very familiar, I think, to most people. The drug deal gone bad, one guy owes the other money, kidnaps the younger brother of the guy who owes the money. As we all know, I'm not giving away the ending. It's a well-publicized story. The kid ends up dead. He won't run away up until then, even though he has many chances. It's supposed to be about kind of how delinquent middle-class kids are in the suburbs. The cast is very bad. A lot of bad acting. Very superficial performances. Larry Mantle>> Jean, do you agree that this was a dud? Jean Oppenheimer>> I do, for some of the same reasons and some different ones also. There wasn't one character in this movie that I'd want to spend any time with, much less two hours. As Henry said, it is based on a true story, although the delinquents, these punks, are almost appearing like the gang who couldn't shoot straight in a way. A lot of what they try to do, they just fumble or they accidentally fall into committing some crime and I don't think that that's probably an apt representation. [Film Clip] Jean Oppenheimer>> I found that my view was, in some ways, affected by an interesting article that I read in the Los Angeles Times on Sunday which alleges that the person who had done research for this film has come out publicly talking about, in the true case, that he feels that the lead person who has not yet gone to trial is really just, you know, a good person at heart. I feel that that is very unprofessional to do. There's also been allegations that the prosecutor in the first case of the four boys who were convicted has turned over some of his evidence to help the defense. Larry Mantle>> Our second film this week also has a southern California connection in which the leading character moves from southern California to a traditionally black college in Georgia. It profiles the practice of "stepping" and the practices that can change from coast to coast. The movie is called "Stomp the Yard". [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> Jean, "Stomp the Yard"? Jean Oppenheimer>> Well, this is a movie that wears its heart on its sleeve in its intentions which are to be a sort of uplifting, perhaps an inspirational, drama. It succeeds to some extent on this. There's a little bit of "West Side Story" about it. Instead of the rumbling between two gangs, instead of the Jets and the Sharks, you have these two fraternities at this all-black university in Atlanta and, instead of a rumble, they have a dance rumble. It's about something called "stepping". It's been a long tradition in predominantly black colleges. It's a type of not really dancing, but sort of stomping to music, precision of the movement and sound. The star of the show actually is a young man who I've thought seen before who I think is very good named Columbus Short. I'll have to check that. He plays a young man from the streets of Los Angeles who moves to Atlanta and gets involved with step dancing at the college he goes to. Larry Mantle>> And finally this week, the documentary "Black Gold" which profiles coffee-growing and distribution practices beginning with Ethiopia as its base. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> Henry, what did you think of the documentary, "Black Gold"? Henry Sheehan>> Well, like all of my fellow Americans, I'm a coffee fiend. My name is Henry. I'm a coffee addict. This is a very informative movie. It starts in Ethiopia, which is the country where coffee was first brewed, where they found the first coffee bean. It shows what the farmer's life is like. It kind of focuses on the manager of a local co-op which gets together these farmers to try to sell their product directly onto the world market and bypass the major corporations. It shows how they get twelve cents a kilo, which is eighty cups of coffee -- you know, down the end, we're paying like two bucks for one cup of coffee -- and how to get some of that money from the consumer directly to the grower. There's a lot of stuff about economic injustice in the movie, but the movie's tone is very calm. It doesn't try to goose the audience into having a sense of injustice. The filmmakers just felt, properly I think, that if they present you this information in a cogent and calm way in human terms, then your own sense of justice will be awoken. Larry Mantle>> Such a novel idea for a film documentary. Jean, what did you think? Jean Oppenheimer>> Well, I hope the film is successful in what it's trying to do because I too think it's a very strong and very sobering film. I think it's just chock full of information and is, again, a film about pretty much the exploitation of the locals as compared to the multinational corporations in London and New York which, I guess, set the prices for coffee and the amount of money that is made and how little these people get. So overall, I think it's actually a very strong documentary. I must say, however, I'm not a coffee drinker. I'm a tea drinker. I hate to think what's going to happen when they do that exposé (laughter). Larry Mantle>> Well, thanks for joining us for another FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle with critics Jean Oppenheimer of Village Voice Media, and Henry Sheehan of henrysheehan.com. We look forward to your joining us in two weeks for the next FilmWeek on Life and Times. Val Zavala>> For the hour version of FilmWeek, you can tune in to KPCC public radio Fridays at eleven a.m. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. Announcer>> Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. With additional support for Life and Times from The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation. Sponsored in part by:  | |
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