In my personal experience, most of the time, with most judges. I’m a divorce and family lawyer in Utah, and family law gives judges such broad discretion that even those to whom their broad discretion has not gone to their heads have the opportunity to decide cases consisting of the same kinds of facts and circumstances in significantly and substantially different ways (fun fact: with the exception of Georgia and Texas, divorce cases are not permitted to be tried to a jury, only to the judge).
It’s an opportunity of which most judges especially avail themselves in divorce and family law cases. This makes it very hard to predict for a client what kind of decision to expect from a judge regarding certain divorce issues. Consequently, reading tea leaves on many issues are what divorce and family lawyers do regularly and frequently.
Utah Family Law, LC | divorceutah.com | 801-466-9277