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Santo Domingo was slower getting into the quickie divorce business, primarily because of opposition from the church, feminist groups and the press; President Joaquin Balaguer vetoed the original bill. But once leading legislators were assured of a share of the legal business, the measure was passed in June over Balaguer's veto. Already, Haiti has been forced to reduce its price to compete with its neighbor's figure. The package fee, which varies somewhat depending on the case, is divided among the stateside lawyer, the Caribbean lawyer, and government agencies including the court.
Manuel G. Espinosa, 43, is the resident expert in the Dominican Republic's new divorce business. When word of the change in Mexican divorce law came down, Espinosa, a Mexican lawyer who had plied the Juárez trade for eight years, moved to Santo Domingo and eagerly awaited the chance to do business there. Now Espinosa is director of the city's leading domestic relations firm (otherwise made up exclusively of members of President Balaguer's Reformista Party).
McKay and Espinosa are persuaded that the island can attract even more business than Juarez did at its apogee. What they need, they say, is proper promotion, and the Dominican Republic has already snared its first celebrity. Actor Elliott Gould flashed through the court last month to dissolve his marriage to Barbra Streisand. "I don't want to knock Mexico," says Espinosa, "but the system had become too mechanical." When he leads his flock into the marbled courthouse, Espinosa carefully points out the crucifix in the court signifying, he says, "the presence of God."
The newly unspliced so far seem satisfied. Once they have answered a black-robed magistrate's five questions (name, nationality, address, occupation and consent to be divorced), they have nothing but kind words for the procedure. They do not even mind that the ceremony takes almost a minute—a full 30 seconds longer than the superefficient Juarez procedure. Said one veteran of Juarez: "It was like a cattle run there; here in Santo Domingo it's got class." Those who opt for the Caribbean have one final decision to make: whether to get divorced in French (Haiti) or in Spanish (Dominican Republic).