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Divorce lawyer chokes back tears on heartbreaking case he ‘should have lost’
A top divorce lawyer broke down in tears while discussing the most heartbreaking case he has ever worked on.
James Sexton, who works in the New York metropolitan area, says he ‘should have lost’ the emotional case but didn’t for a very sad reason – the victim couldn’t afford a good lawyer.
Divorce lawyer’s most heartbreaking case
Speaking on Steven Bartlett’s Diary Of A CEO podcast, the attorney explained that he once represented a pimp who had “very brutally abused” a woman he had children with. Sadly, the lawyer who represented her was inexperienced and the judge was impatient so the pimp ended up winning.
The key piece of evidence was a photograph of the woman’s face after her husband had beaten her. However, due to inexperience, the victim’s lawyer didn’t know how to get the picture into evidence, so it wasn’t used.
“Normally in that situation, a judge will be helpful, but this judge was just not in the mood,” the divorce lawyer said.
The victim’s inexperienced lawyer kept getting the wording wrong and asking about the contents of the photo, which was not in evidence, leaving Sexton with no choice but to object.
Choking back tears on the podcast, he said: “My internal dialogue in that moment was ‘Just say it. Just get it right’.”
He so badly wanted the woman to win even though he was representing the pimp, but she lost the case as she wasn’t able to afford a good lawyer.
“I remember looking at the judge and thinking you’re letting this happen. You’re letting this happen, don’t let this happen,” he emotionally recalled.
“She’s poor. She’s poor, that’s why she’s going to lose. She’s gonna lose because she’s poor and she can’t afford a lawyer and he’s going win because he can afford a lawyer that knows how to put a document into evidence.”
‘There’s something really wrong about that’
Sexton said there’s something “really wrong” about the fact guilty people win just because they have more money, and it’s really resonated with a lot of people in the comments.
One person wrote: “Its absolutely BROKEN. I was that woman going against a rich abusive ex-husband.”
“Thats how my mom lost sole custody of my sister – she couldnt afford a lawyer and he paid for the best lawyer,” said another.
A third person added: “Me too! I finally could afford to take him BACK to court 9 years later and fought for my daughter but so much damage has been done.”
“So did my sister. She not only lost custody of her only daughter, but she had PAY HIM alimony because he was unemployed by choice,” someone else commented.
Others claimed that sadly, the justice system “only works if you can afford it” and “favors the wealthy”.
James Sexton is one of the worlds leading divorce lawyers, practising in divorce and family law at his own firm New York-based firm.
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