Unfortunately, these aren’t edge cases, they’re common cases. Courts tend to rule based on spherical cows. The reality of family law is incredible messy, judges

Unfortunately, these aren’t edge cases, they’re common cases. Courts tend to rule based on spherical cows. The reality of family law is incredible messy, judges have incredible levels of discretion, and any real fact-finding is not practical in almost all cases. It’s almost always unfair, it just comes down to how much and to who. In the example given, you can go back the court, usually, and have it corrected to reflect reality if you’ve carefully documented it and the judge’s whims are with you that day, but even getting the court date could be months or years out and of course most people don’t have the confidence or knowledge to do this without a lawyer, which will be at least a few grand and which they’ll see as a lot of money to spend on a gamble that could make things worse for them.