Since the second half of the 19th century, when it started to establish itself as a regular practice among married couples, divorce gradually became the norm rather than the exception in the resolution of marital conflicts. Couples are now separating for reasons that used to be considered marginal or not legitimate. The workload of the courts has increased exponentially through the addition of the numerous divorce cases and so has the activity of attorneys.

Historically, San Diego divorce attorneys used to concern themselves only with severe cases, involving physical abuse inflicted by one of the spouses upon the other. Divorce was such a rare practice that it took serious reasons to push one of the members of the couple to face the psychological trauma of the procedure, its financial costs, and the associated public ostracism. However, concurrent with the women liberation movement, spouses started to understand more and more that marriage does not have to be a life-long commitment unless it brings happiness to both partners. As a result of this process, San Diego divorce attorneys, as well as many of their peers around the United States, found themselves facing an increasing number of divorce cases initiated on the most diverse grounds.

Facing this raise in the number of marriage break-ups and the psychological difficulty of the procedure, San Diego divorce attorneys and their colleagues began thinking up ways of making the whole process more humane. Apart from advising the couples on how to deal with the legal procedures, how to address the special situation of the children of the broken home, and how to tackle the financial costs, San Diego divorce attorneys thought up alternative divorce procedures to the traditional court rulings passed by judges.

The San Diego divorce attorneys were among the first to understand the inhumanness of leaving the conditions of ending a marriage up to neutral laws and judges and attorneys that are not personally involved in the case. This is not the way to deal with years of affection, mutual cohabitation, homes and children. The San Diego divorce attorneys realized the importance of out-of-court settlements, the terms of which would be decided by the members of the divorcing couple together, assisted by their attorneys. Other alternative procedures are the "collaborative" and the "co-operative" divorce, which give the opportunity to the two spouses to work together with both lawyers and jointly build up the case.

Through promoting these types of practices, San Diego divorce lawyers managed to bring about a change of paradigm in the thinking on divorce. Just like marriage should be perceived as something that the two members of the couple do together, so should the ending of the marriage stop short of being a conflict. Aware of the difficulty of a marriage break-up, San Diego attorneys try to seek out ways of making this moment pass as harmoniously as possible, both for the couple and for their children. The San Diego divorce lawyers are also conscious that by keeping up the positive communication between the two members of the couple and their lawyers, the two parties will be able to come up with the best settlements and avoid coming back to court again.

It is perhaps time to stop perceiving divorce lawyers as hawks that are just there to take advantage of people's troubles for profit. The case of the San Diego lawyers and their great involvement with alternative divorce settlements makes a good case for this point. Closer than anybody else to the pain and difficulties of divorce, the San Diego divorce attorneys were best positioned to come up with ways of reducing the stress. It is important that the judicial procedures, especially in such delicate areas as family law, keep changing and adjusting themselves to address the needs and sensitivities of the people. After all, the justice system exists in order to make people's lives and cohabitation easier. The justice system is not in place to ensure its own perpetuation, but it is set up in order to protect the well being of the citizens. The efforts of the San Diego divorce attorneys in the divorce-related procedures make it seem that the justice system has not forgotten its mission.