Avi: 1. A beis din cannot impose peshara unless all parties agree to it. Rav Moshe has a teshuva stating that if either party to a beis din case insists on “din” rather than peshara, then the dayanim must strictly use din and not peshara.
2. In gittin cases, specifically, Shulchan Aruch very clearly rules that the beis din cannot “pasken according to what they consider just”, and are strictly limited in their ability to render a judgement that a divorce must given in a case where the husband expresses a desire to not divorce. The Shulchan Aruch further states that if a beis din tells a husband that he must give a divorce in a case where it does not fit within the parameters of one of the specifically listed reasons in the Gemorah where Chazal ruled a husband must give a divorce, then the resulting Get is deemed a “Get Me’usa” and is invalid.
akuperman: The husband can insist that his support be provided in his marital home and he has no obligation to cut a check for his wife to live elsewhere so long as he makes his marital home available for her food and lodging.
A secular divorce has absolutely no meaning in halacha. Halacha requires a halachic divorce be mutually agreed upon (since R”G; prior to that it required only the husband’s will). The common cases nowadays is usually not where the husband abandoned his wife and started civil procedures but rather where the wife did that. If, indeed, he abandoned her then it is likely he has a halachic obligation to give a divorce. If she abandoned him, he does not have that obligation – though the “advocates” will still protest.
Sam: You are demonstrably incorrect. I can point you to specific cases where ORA used their methods without a beis din ever having rendered a judgement that the husband is obligated to give a Get. In fact, there is a recent letter issued by the Baltimore Beis Din condemning the protests organized by ORA in a specific case where the BBD had jurisdiction of the gittin case, it having been accepted by both the husband and wife, and the BBD never ruled the husband had any obligation to give a Get. Nevertheless, ORA conducted protests for years against him until several months ago the BBD issued a public letter stating he has no obligation to give a Get and the protests against him were wrong and kneged halacha and anyone who participated in them must seek his mechila.