Divorce Train Wrecks

Alternative Dispute Resolution By Frat Stud?

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SideTaker.com might be the best example of schadenfreude ever created.
It is ostensibly a form of alternative dispute resolution for divorcing or generally unhappy couples. The concept is pretty simple. A disgruntled lover pays a $12 fee and posts his or her grievance on the website. Then he/she invites their partner to do the same. Once the two sides are online, random strangers weigh in on the dispute and vote over a 60 day period for who should prevail.
Obviously the results are not legally binding in any way (not unlike the modern day marriage certificate).
Legal Blog Watch reports that the site’s creators think they are doing some sort of service for the benefit of these couples:

Some are just, but far too many divorces, break ups, and separations happen over non-critical disputes. Over 50% of American marriages end in divorce. In a fight, each person has their side and are usually backed by their friends (on either side). When you can create a jury of anonymous peers to decide who is right or wrong in an argument, then the bias is gone and the person at fault will just have to suck it up.

I can’t imagine hating a woman enough to subject our relationship to the scathing critique of anonymous commenters. I think it’d be more humane just to throw some arsenic in the morning coffee and be done with it.
Wisdom from Side Taker’s “jury” after the jump.


Not surprisingly, marriage mediators do not immediately see the site’s value:

Mediation works not by telling one party or the other to “suck it up,” but by helping both parties find common ground.

But why strive (and pay) for common ground when any old person can clearly see obvious points like the ones already available on Side Taker:

Forget that stupid woman. She must have some serious mental issues. It sounds like she gets around a lot.

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Or:

She has every right to hate you for what you did…but that doesn’t make her right for it. Things happen for a reason.

O brave new world, that has such people in’t.
With the Web, Who Needs Mediation? [Legal Blog Watch]
She Destroyed Me After 3 Years Together [Side Taker]

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