Jessica Gelt
Los Angeles Times

Love is "temporary insanity curable by marriage," wrote 19th century journalist Ambrose Bierce. Maybe that's why the number of marriage licenses recorded in L.A. County last year (more than 56,000) is so close to the number of filings for dissolutions, nullities and legal separations (nearly 40,000). Supervising Judge Marjorie S. Steinberg, who oversees the 45 family law judges and commissioners who preside over these cases, is on the front lines of one of L.A.'s toughest judicial beats. It's a job that requires patience and heart.

Q What's the smoothest way to sail through a divorce? A There's collaborative law, where you pick one lawyer for the two of you. Our court gives special consideration to those cases, so people who do collaborative law get their judgments signed really quickly. The other way is to just sit down with a couple of lawyers and work it out.

Source: http://www.latimes.com/features/magazine/la-tm-influence4may04,0,7109268.story