Originally from Alternatives to the High Cost of Litigation

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One of the oldest dispute types in history is the family row. Law reports contain endless cases about disputes between brothers, cousins and the like, often about not very much money or property. We are talking here of cases about broy-ges—Yiddish for feuds—not romantic heartache. Family law disputes have their own dynamic with passions, marital property and maintenance for spouses and children—and a literature that it would take the length of many marriages to read.

The family row has a completely different flavor even though it may find its roots in somebody’s marital decisions.

For example, this author never met his mother’s first cousin, although she lived well into her 80s, because his grandfather threw the father of the lady in question out of the family business. (He actually bought him out.)