I finally went to the courthouse to file and got trapped in a weird support group for 45 minutes

So last Tuesday I went to the county courthouse downtown to drop off my divorce papers. I walked into what I thought was the filing office but it turned out to be a court-ordered parenting class for people going through custody battles. There were like 12 people there and a facilitator who asked if I was ready to "co-parent with respect." I just stood there holding my manila folder while someone's ex-husband tried to hand me a flyer about parallel parenting. It took me way too long to realize I was in the wrong room, but honestly the free coffee was decent. Has anyone else accidentally wandered into something completely off-track while dealing with the legal stuff?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_max28d ago

Oh man, that's wild but honestly I've done something kinda similar. I once went to the county health department for a food handlers permit and accidentally sat through half of a grief counseling session because the doors weren't labeled clearly. The thing is, those parenting class people probably thought you were just really committed to fixing your marriage since you showed up with divorce papers in hand. At least the coffee was good though, that's a win in any courthouse situation. I bet if you'd stayed the whole time you would have gotten some solid tips on how to handle the holidays with your kids. Makes me wonder how many other people just roll with it when they end up in the wrong room like that.

the_jason28d ago

Call it out for what it is. That's just a lack of basic organization at the courthouse. I bet if they had proper signs and staff who actually pointed people in the right direction, none of this would happen. The free coffee is a trap. They want you to wander in and stay. It's a way to pad their attendance numbers for those programs. You should have walked out the second you realized it wasn't the filing office. No reason to sit through someone else's drama because the county can't put up a damn sign.

park.robin13d ago

I saw something online about how courthouses are basically designed to confuse people on purpose to reduce the amount of cases that actually get filed. Probably not true but after hearing your story it kind of makes sense. At least you got a decent cup of coffee out of it, that's more than most people get out of a divorce.