What time of year is the biggest month for divorces?
By the time someone decides to get a divorce they have usually been thinking about it for more than 3 years! Divorce month is between January 15-February 15 and it is the time of year when the greatest number of divorced are filed. That doesn’t mean that people haven’t worked for years to avoid divorce.
There are a couple reasons why: When you’re going into the new year, you’re reflecting on your life, your accomplishments and what you’d like to have happen in the year ahead. Once you take stock of your situation, if you see that your marriage is mess, and you’ve done everything to try and fix it, most January-February divorce clients have long ago decided what they needed to do. It’s understandable that people don’t want to pull the plug on a marriage going into the holidays, which are so dependent on family time.
Divorce is not a quick decision at all. When a relationship fails, the issues are usually similar: the bond is broken. Typically, someone mishandles family finances, someone is consistently dishonest, abusive or even violent. At that point, it’s not a relationship issue, but a legal issue.
Then you have to decide, do I want to do this on my own, get a paralegal to help me, or get an attorney? It’s not always obvious. When people come to see me, they may or may not be ready, and that’s understandable. But the January-February clients have usually been thinking about it for a long time: typically three years.
My role, when someone comes in to talk with me about initiating a divorce, is to listen, to advise and to counsel for your next steps. My job is to serve you. This is your show. If you’ve talked to other attorneys that take over rather than letting you star in this show and support you with what you’re going through, then it’s time to keep looking.
