Maybe it wasn’t a great business tactic on my part, but when I practiced family law, if I had doubts that the client’s narrative really warranted a divorce, I would ask probing questions during the initial consultation. I would point out the consequences of divorce if they hadn’t fully considered them. And I almost always asked if they had tried marriage counseling. To that last point, sadly, many of them had—obviously, without success. I can’t conclude from these instances alone that marital counseling is ineffective; after all, only the ones that don’t work end up in a divorce lawyer's office.