The end of a divorce proceeding does not always signify the end of acrimony between the divorced parents. As many divorced residents of Sacramento have learned, anger at the former spouse may often disrupt post-divorce efforts by the parents to tend to the welfare of their children. A California judge and a California entrepreneur are attempting to combine their experiences to develop and market an app named coParenter that is intended to assist divorced parents communicate about their children and make necessary child rearing decisions.
The judge served on the Superior Court in Riverside for 20 years and also taught family law. She came away from these experiences convinced that the existing legal system provides little, if any, concrete assistance in resolving disputes. She says that she saw countless families torn apart as they attempted to move through the family law system. The entrepreneur has recently gone through his own divorce, and he shares the judge’s feelings about the system’s flaws.
The app is touted as covering all aspects of co-parenting, including communication, documentation, calendar and schedule sharing, expense tracking and reimbursements and tools for making decisions about every day parenting decisions. The app uses artificial intelligence to block the use of inflammatory words and phrases, all in the name of keeping interactions between the spouses as civil as possible. The app will also flag potentially offensive terms by asking of the sending parent if the use of the term is intentional. The app also provides on-demand access to professionals who can offer live assistance. These professionals are typically family law attorneys, therapists, social workers or retired judicial officials.
During beta testing, the app appears to have helped parents communicate more effectively. However, the app cannot practice law, and its effectiveness may be limited. Therefore, California residents going through a divorce may want to consult an experienced attorney about their individual situation and legal options that would best suit them.
