Category: Divorce

Is January Really Divorce Month

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

Forbes magazine is currently reporting on what’s become a standard topic to start the new year: is January really the “divorce month.” Why does January even have this reputation? Is it because January is when there is a big increase in couples filing for divorce and child custody?

January Divorce

New Year New Start

While the new year brings on resolutions including diets, going “dry” in January, and an uptick in gym memberships, New Year’s resolutions can often include divorce. Some lawyers think that the first working Monday of the year is “Divorce Day.” In 2026, “Divorce Day” is Monday, January 5th.

Many couples stay together – with all the stress the holidays bring – “for the children.” But once New Year’s Day arrives, couples are free to think about fresh starts. Many law firms around the country have begun to call January the “Divorce Month”.

According to some research, divorce filings have peaked in late summer and early spring. Some experts believe that divorce is most likely driven by a domestic ritual calendar that governs family behavior. Often, August is the month for divorce filings following family vacations and right before school starts. The seasonal change of weather in the spring has also been said to cause people to act.

Interestingly, many people see a drop in divorce filings from Thanksgiving until the start of the New Year. Problems that already exist between couples become exacerbated during the Christmas holidays. The stress of spending time with relatives, cooking large elaborate meals, and the expense of buying presents can all be sources of stress and friction between couples.

New Years, under this theory, marks the final straw in an already tumultuous relationship and the resolution that they will not spend another unhappy year together. Inquiries of divorce lawyers can peak during January, but is it really just a comparison to the two months prior that saw a drop in divorce filings?

Florida Divorce

I’ve written about no fault divorce and statistics about divorce – such as the January divorce month phenomenon – before. The no-fault concept in Florida means you no longer have to prove a reason for the divorce, like your husband’s alleged infidelity with a congresswoman. Instead, you just need to state under oath that your marriage is “irretrievably broken.”

The official term for divorce in Florida is “dissolution of marriage”, and you don’t need fault as a ground for divorce. Florida abolished fault as a ground for divorce. Before the no-fault divorce era, people who wanted to get divorce either had to reach agreement in advance with the other spouse that the marriage was over, or throw mud at each other and prove wrongdoing like adultery or abuse.

No-fault laws were the result of trying to change the way divorces played out in court. No fault laws have reduced the number of feuding couples who felt the need to resort to distorted facts, lies, and the need to focus the trial on who did what to whom.

Divorce in January

If you have reached the conclusion that you can’t spend another minute in your marriage, is January the best time for you to file for divorce? Filing for a divorce impacts your children emotionally and psychologically and creates financial stressors.

Living in two separate households is more expensive than living in one home together, and the more children in your marriage, the more costly the two households will be.

A two-bedroom apartment in Miami can range from around $1,900 – $2,500 in some parts of Miami Lakes/West Kendall to as high as $3,500 in the Brickell area. Three bedroom will naturally be more costly and harder to find than a two-bedroom apartment.

In Florida, there is an initial temporary order issued when filing for divorce designed to preserve the status quo. Realistically however, people separating households into two homes is a division which can leave both households with less than the combined previous married household.

So, is January the best month of the year to file? Possibly. Children are often starting the new school term in the new year. They are still home from school and will have enjoyed a holiday with both parents, and are still excited with their presents. Additionally, bonuses are often paid in the beginning of the year.  January is here. Happy new year and new you.

The Forbes article is here.

Divorce Loans

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

Divorces are financially draining, often requiring you to deplete your savings or obtain loans during the process to cover lawyer fees, expert witness fees, and other costs. Whether a divorce loan is right for your divorce is making world news after a Chinese businesswoman sued her young employee after loaning him money for his divorce.

Divorce Loans

Big Trouble in Little China

A businesswoman named Zhu from Chongqing, a city located in south-western China, is counting her losses after giving a former employee she had an affair with Rs 3,000,000 (US$420,000) to fund his divorce and payoff his wife for child support.

The younger man, known as He, joined Zhu’s company while both were married to other people. Zhu quickly developed feelings for him and the two began an affair. They agreed to divorce their respective spouses and start afresh together.

To help her young lover divorce his wife, Chen, Zhu transferred three million renminbis directly to the wife as settlement. The sum was described as “compensation” for the divorce and as financial support for the upbringing of their child. With the money paid, He finalized his divorce and moved in with Zhu.

About a year after moving in together, Zhu and He decided they were incompatible, and separated. But then Zhu demanded her divorce loan back. Ultimately, Zhu filed a lawsuit against the now divorce coupled, He and Chen, and demanded they both repay her divorce loan to He.

Florida Divorce Loans

I have written about international divorces and marital debts before. In a dissolution of marriage, whether to classify loans as marital or nonmarital may depend on a few factors. For example, when was the loan given, what was its purpose, and were the purposes marital or nonmarital.

Generally, the cut-off date for determining whether a loan is marital or nonmarital is the date of the filing of the petition for dissolution of marriage, unless otherwise agreed by the parties. Accordingly, any loans incurred before the filing date are presumed to be marital liabilities unless proven otherwise. However, loans incurred after the filing date are generally classified as nonmarital liabilities unless they meet specific criteria.

House of Flying Daggers

During the first trial, the court sided with Zhu, arguing that the funds violated public order and good customs, thus deeming it an “invalid gift.” Consequently, the court ruled that the money should be refunded.

The divorced couple, Chen and He, then filed an appeal. An upper-level court determined that Zhu had not provided sufficient evidence to prove that she had gifted the money to Chen. Instead, the money was classified as a payment made on behalf of He for divorce compensation and child-rearing expenses, stated the appellate court.

The appellate court said Zhu had failed to prove the payment was a personal gift to Chen. Instead, it was regarded as money He owed his wife as part of the divorce settlement and for child-rearing expenses.

The upper-level court also criticized Zhu’s conduct, observing that she had used her wealth to hasten a divorce, and then sought to undo her gift when the romance faltered. The judges noted her lack of integrity in attempting to reclaim the payment under such circumstances.

The South China Morning Post article is here.

This is Your MenoDivorce

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

Do you really want a divorce, or do you have a case of MenoDivorce? These are questions many women reaching their midlife are asking. Hormones are changing, they are becoming empty nesters, and careers are often at their peak. The hot new term in family law has become: the Meno-Divorce.

Menodivorce

No tears and no hearts breakin’ . . .

As of last year, marriage rates were up and divorce numbers were down. But, there’s a specific type of divorce that’s now seems to be on the rise. This is something known as “menodivorce” and, it’s linked to women, in particular, being perimenopausal or going through menopause.

The divorce rate for middle aged and older men has been increasing significantly too. For men, the second half of life is a big change in terms of  your physical shape, changing work roles, and different sexual appetites and abilities. Then there’s the fact children are grown, there’s more free time, and more disposable income.

It is no different for women. According to the Mayo Clinic, perimenopause is the time before menopause when your body is getting ready to stop having periods. And, more women approaching menopause are leaving their husbands. Some women view leaving their spouses as an awakening instead of a midlife crisis.

According to a UK-based survey conducted by the Family Law Menopause Project and Newsom Health Research and Education, seven in 10 women blamed perimenopause or menopause for the breakdown of their marriage.

Another study by Bowling Green State University’s National Center for Family and Marriage Research found that, as of 2019, divorce rates in adults 50 and older accounted for one in four divorces, up from this age bracket making up one in ten divorces in the US in 1990.

Florida MenoDivorce

I’ve written about midlife divorces and gray divorces before. The legal nuances of gray divorce can be different than what other couples might encounter. In a gray divorce, the financial considerations take on more importance than the children’s issues – because the children are emancipated or nearly so.

When couples choose to divorce in their 30s or 40s, they still have time to recover financially, because adults at that age have several years, if not decades, left in their careers.

But when divorce occurs when a couple is in their 50s or later, the so-called “MenoDivorce” years, careers may either be coming to a close or are completed, and spouses are often living on fixed incomes provided through Social Security or retirement benefits.

Here are some things to consider:

  • By the time a couple enters the golden years, there may be gold to divide, including businesses, retirement funds, and vacation homes. Valuing these assets can be difficult. A financial advisor may be an important component in the divorce.
  • Health insurance is often tied to the employment of a spouse. Courts may need to intervene if one party has dwindling capacity to handle their own affairs.
  • Wills and trusts need to be reviewed to make sure they reflect post-divorce wishes. The same is true for long-term care, such as medical directives, living wills and trusts.
  • Retirement plans can be substantial and complex. Retirement plans vary, and they all have different restrictions, tax consequences, distribution and vesting rules.
  • There are special concerns involved in a gray divorce. As always, information is power, so make a point to seek out experts for guidance.

Many MenoDivorces involve marriages that have lasted for several decades, which makes it difficult to disentangle the spouses from each other. However, couples who divorce after many years together should receive a close-to-even split of assets, legally putting each spouse on an equal playing field for the future.

No Remorse

The average age a woman reaches menopause in America is 51, according to the Mayo Clinic. One OB-GYN and menopause specialist broke down why women are divorcing their husbands when they hit this stage of their lives.

Perimenopausal and menopausal women experience a whole range of symptoms, like a loss of libido, at the same time, life begins to get more stressful, which eventually takes its toll on them. Experts advise couples to seek additional help, like therapy, to improve communication and support, as well as treatment to help with menopausal symptoms.

The USA Today article is here.

Excessive Snoring Grounds for Divorce

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

Could excessive snoring be grounds for a divorce? Recent news out of Israel has many people dreaming about a peaceful night’s sleep after a court ruled on whether, if left untreated, snoring could lead to financial liability and a divorce.

Sleep Divorce

Sleep Divorce

A study conducted amongst 2,000 married couples in the United Kingdom found that approximately 12% of the couples cited that snoring was one of the problems that contributed to the downfall of their relationship. About 18% revealed that they regularly argued about snoring, while 30% admitted that they had to resort to sleeping in separate rooms.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea is a pervasive sleep disorder that affects a significant portion of the population, with approximately 11% of women and 26% of men in America suffering from it..

A couple in Israel saw that their marriage deteriorated amid mutual accusations, leading to divorce with an agreement to settle the other issue later. During the divorce trial, the wife accused the husband of “excessive snoring.”

While the husband admitted the issue, he countered, “When I snored, she’d scream, get angry, hit the wall, curse and order me to go to the child’s room, even withholding intimacy.”

The wife sought full financial payment plus additional compensation, while the husband argued her demands caused the split.

Florida No Fault Divorce

The official term for divorce in Florida is “dissolution of marriage”, and you don’t need fault as a ground for divorce. Florida abolished fault as a ground for divorce. Interestingly, given the recent attack on no-fault divorce, it was former Governor Ronald Reagan of California who signed the nation’s first no-fault divorce bill.

The no fault divorce law eliminated the need for couples to fabricate spousal wrongdoing in pursuit of a divorce; indeed, one likely reason for Reagan’s decision to sign the bill was that his first wife, Jane Wyman, had unfairly accused him of “mental cruelty” to obtain a divorce in 1948.

I’ve written about no-fault divorce issues before. The no-fault concept in Florida means you no longer have to prove a reason for the divorce, like your husband’s snoring and untreated sleep apnea. Instead, you just need to state under oath that your marriage is “irretrievably broken.”

Before the no-fault divorce era, people who wanted to get divorce either had to reach agreement in advance with the other spouse that the marriage was over or throw mud at each other and prove wrongdoing like adultery or abuse.

No-fault laws were the result of trying to change the way divorces played out in court. No fault laws have reduced the number of feuding couples who felt the need to resort to distorted facts, lies, and the need to focus the trial on who did what to whom.

A Snoozer of a Decision

Back in the Holy Land, a court deliberated extensively on whether a husband’s snoring justifies divorce and alimony payments. After a lengthy review, a three-judge panel ruled that the husband could have addressed his snoring but failed to do so.

The court ordered him to pay 130,000 shekels (about $35,000) as compensation as demanded by his wife. After consulting historical rulings and modern medical insights, the judges wrote:

“We face a unique case where both husband and wife agree he snores during sleep, driving her to frustration and anger. His snoring led her to leave the bedroom, halt intimacy and fuel mutual resentment, insults and curses.”

They noted that snoring is treatable through medical consultation, devices, therapies or diet adjustments. Since the husband recognized his snoring deeply irritated his wife, he should have sought treatment for an admitted issue.

“Per the Jewish sages, if a person can change and doesn’t, he is deemed to have willfully driven his wife away, obligating him to pay. His snoring was solvable and his failure to act makes him liable for the full ketubah and supplement.”

The three judges diverged on the compensation amount. One judge advocated for the full 260,000 shekels ($70,000), while the two other judges argued the wife’s behavior also contributed to the rift, proposing 130,000 shekels. The majority upheld the lower sum in the final ruling.

The article is here.

Biblical Grounds for Divorce

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

Are there biblical grounds for divorce you may not be aware of? The wife of the Texas Attorney General, who is a State Senator herself, just announced she is filing for divorce in her 38 year marriage “on biblical grounds.” The senator’s X post has Texans ‘talking the hides off cows’ about biblical divorces.

biblical divorce

In the beginning . . .

Angela Paxton is a Texas state senator; she is also the wife of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Senator Paxton recently wrote in a social media post that she has filed for divorce:

Today, after 38 years of marriage, I filed for divorce on biblical grounds. I believe marriage is a sacred covenant and I have earnestly pursued reconciliation. But in light of recent discoveries, I do not believe that it honors God or is loving to myself, my children, or Ken to remain in the marriage.

Ken Paxton pointed to “countless political attacks and public scrutiny” in his own X posting, saying the two “have decided to start a new chapter in our lives. I could not be any more proud or grateful for the incredible family that God has blessed us with, and I remain committed to supporting our amazing children and grandchildren. I ask for your prayers and privacy at this time.”

Texas has preserved the right to file for fault that caused the breakdown of the marriage, and these are grounds for divorce that go back well more than 100 years. One of the fault bases would be adultery, and that’s probably what the senator is referring to.

Florida Divorce Reasons

The official term for divorce in Florida is “dissolution of marriage”, and you don’t need fault as a ground for divorce. Florida abolished fault as a ground for divorce. I’ve written about no fault divorce and infidelity issues before. The no-fault concept in Florida means you no longer have to prove a reason for the divorce, like your husband’s allegedly failing to be faithful. Instead, you just need to state under oath that your marriage is “irretrievably broken.”

Before the no-fault divorce era, people who wanted to get a divorce either had to reach an agreement in advance with the other spouse that their marriage was over, or throw Texas Mud Pies at each other in court to prove some wrongdoing, like adultery.

No fault laws were the result of trying to change the way divorces played out in court. No fault laws have reduced the number of feuding couples who felt the need to resort to distort facts, lie, and the need to focus the trial on who did what to whom.

Don’t Mess with Texas Fam. Code §6.003

The Paxton announcement throws a wrench into attorney general Paxton’s efforts to oust U.S. Senator John Cornyn in one of the nation’s most closely watched U.S. Senate primaries. Democrats are looking for more senate races in which their candidates can be competitive. Democrats see Paxton as an easier target. So Paxton has to be careful not to ‘tip over the outhouse.’

The National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, sharply criticized Paxton in a statement that offered a window into how bitter the primary race could become:

“What Ken Paxton has put his family through is truly repulsive and disgusting. No one should have to endure what Angela Paxton has, and we pray for her as she chooses to stand up for herself and her family during this difficult time”.

Paxton is a strident conservative and ally of President Donald Trump who earned a national reputation by frequently suing to try to block the actions of former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden in federal court.

Angela Paxton was present for the Senate’s impeachment trial, in which Paxton was also accused of having an extramarital affair with a woman who was hired by the real estate developer, but she was not ‘fixin’ to vote.’ He was acquitted by the more conservative senate, where an ally, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, presided over the trial.

Cornyn, proving ‘no tongue was hurt by speaking softly’ was asked by CNN for his comment: “Seems like a private matter.” But Cornyn’s campaign on X shared a local news report citing Angela Paxton’s divorce filing, as well as the NRSC’s statement lambasting the attorney general.

The CNN article is here.

Using AI and Divorce

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

Lawyers and non-lawyers alike, are increasingly using AI in their divorce cases and ending up in trouble. One Atlanta divorce lawyer who repeatedly cited to phony legal cases in her client’s divorce papers found out that using AI in your divorce can badly harm your case.

AI Divorce Lawyer2

Deus Ex Machina

Generative AI is saving lawyers time and money, but if used improperly, it could cost them their livelihoods. Generative AI is a type of AI model that creates new content, such as text, images, or music, based on large amounts of training data.

Examples for text include OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot, Google’s Gemini, Meta’s Llama, and Anthropic’s Claude, and for images ChatGPT, Gemini, Adobe and Midjourney. A generative AI model that is text-based is called a large language model.

But here’s the thing. When given a question or prompt, AI uses learned patterns to predict the best outputs, such as your motion or brief. Training a generative AI model takes months because of the enormous amounts of data and the neural network’s process of learning and optimization.

Generative AI is impressive but not perfect. AI predictions are just suggestions, and they can be wrong.

Atlanta divorce lawyer, Diana Lynch, is reported to have drafted an order a judge signed in May 2024 that referenced two cases that don’t exist. Lynch’s client filed for divorce in April 2022 and received a divorce decree in July of that year.

In October 2023, the ex-wife asked the county judge to reopen the case and set aside the divorce decree, claiming she had moved to Texas in 2021 and had not been properly served with the complaint. The judge denied the ex-wife’s request in a three-page order in May 2024.

But then the ex-wife’s appealed, and she pointed out the trial judge relied on two fake cases in her order denying her motion, rendering the order void.

Florida Bar and AI Use

I have written about computer and high tech issues in divorce before. Florida was the first state to issue an ethics opinion regarding the use of AI. To ensure client confidentiality, you should confirm that you maintain ownership of any uploaded data, learn how to delete your data, and review the AI provider’s license terms or representations regarding confidentiality.

Free AI models use your questions and uploaded documents to train future models. To maintain client confidentiality, you will need a paid subscription.

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts warned in his 2023 report on the judiciary that commonly used AI applications can be prone to “hallucinations,” causing lawyers to submit briefs citing fake cases, the Georgia judges said. Hallucinations arise when an AI model generates incorrect or nonsensical information and they are factually inaccurate.

Her

On appeal. a three judge panel on the court of appeals in Georgia found that Ms. Lynch was not deterred when she was accused by her client’s ex-wife of making up case law references. In fact, she filed a response citing 11 cases that were also either fake or irrelevant.

“The irregularities in these filings suggest that they were drafted using generative AI. We are troubled by the citation of bogus cases in the trial court’s order.”

The judges said it might be the first time a Georgia appeals court has confronted the problems that can flow from a lawyer’s apparent use of artificial intelligence that generates content. They said other courts have tackled the issue. They also said Lynch added insult to injury by requesting attorney fees in relation to the ex-wife’s appeal and even used a phony case to support the request.

The judges imposed the maximum penalty on Lynch for her “frivolous” bid for attorney fees. They sent the case back to the DeKalb County judge to reconsider the ex-wife’s request to set aside the divorce decree. Their opinion references a study by Stanford researchers, who found generative AI models, including ChatGPT, “hallucinate” around 75% of the time when answering questions about a court’s core ruling.

The article is here.

Are TikTok Gifts Divorce Dissipation or Just Good Business

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

TikTok allows you to make monetary gifts. After one husband made over $300,000 in marital gifts to others on TikTok during his divorce, a court must decide if it is wasteful dissipation or just good business. It is easier than you think to spend and hide marital assets online as one New York trial court discovers.

Tik Tok Divorce

New York State of Mind

Social Media “gifts” allow a social influencer online to earn real money from followers. TikTok revolutionized online content monetization for creators, and now offers an array of over 100 different gifts. For example, an “I Love You” gift is valued at 49 coins and is worth approximately 65¢. On the other end of the spectrum, a “TikTok Universe” gift has a value of 44,999 coins which is worth about $562.

On April 9, 2025, a couple filed for divorce in New York after eight years of marriage. There are three children of the marriage. Most notably, the Husband and Wife are both attorneys licensed to practice law in the State of New York.

At a recent hearing, the Wife asked the court to appoint a guardian ad litem over her Husband, not the children. In New York, a guardian ad litem can be appointed for a litigant if the litigant appears to be in an “apparently chronic irrational and agitated state” resulting in the individual’s inability to effectively litigate their case without assistance.

To prove a guardian was appropriate, she alleged her Husband had become increasingly paranoid, erratic and aggressive on his TikTok “live streams” and was actively dissipating marital assets.

The court heard evidence of the Husband’s recordings on TikTok some of which were filmed right outside the courtroom:

“CJB [the husband] got Court tomorrow. Ain’t no mother fucking judge check me. CJB is vibing right now. Don’t worry about the consequences.”

In his defense, the Husband characterized his TikTok expenditures as investments rather than gifts. He confirmed that he spent at least $300,000.00 on TikTok, approximately $275,000.00 after the divorce was filed: “So, Judge, when it comes to give away money, I don’t — I can’t affirmatively say I have given away money. Have I made — these are marketing and business expenses.”

Florida Dissipation

I’ve written about dissipation of marital assets before. In a divorce proceeding, when distributing the marital assets between spouses, a family court must begin with the premise that the distribution should be equal, unless there is a justification for an unequal distribution based on all relevant factors.

One factor is whether one of the parties intentionally dissipated, wasted, depleted, or destroyed any of the marital assets after the filing of the petition or within two years prior to the filing of the petition.

For an expenditure to be considered dissipation, there must be evidence of intentional misconduct. This means that the spending spouse must have intentionally used marital funds for their own benefit and for a purpose unrelated to the marriage. Simple mismanagement or squandering of an asset, even if the other spouse disapproves, does not constitute dissipation.

It’s up to you New York

In the New York case, the court appointed a guardian ad litem for the Husband as the Wife met the criteria. The Husband was found to have engaged in dishonest conduct. He represented to the court he was represented by legal counsel, and then admitted he had not yet retained counsel.

Additionally, the Husband was in violation of New York’s Automatic Orders by failing to file a statement of net worth. Moreover, the Husband admitted to the judge that he had been spending approximately $275,000.00 on TikTok after the commencement of this action.

The New York decision is available here.

Divorce, Dissipation and an $1,800 Scotch

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

The dissipation of marital assets in divorce is always something to watch for, especially when the marital asset is a $1,800 bottle of 1976 The Glenrothes Single Cask Single Malt Scotch Whisky. An Ohio court recently had to decide what to do when an expensive bottle of Scotch turned up missing.

Dissipation Divorce

The Shot

If, as they say, ‘all happy families are alike, and each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way’ the case of the missing scotch is proof. In the recent Ohio matter the Mother and Father had been married over twenty years. Together, they raised three children, two now-adult children and one minor child. The Mother, Father, and child lived together in a house located in Blue Ash, Ohio outside of Cincinnati.

Then in April 2022, ongoing marital problems caused the couple to separate, and the Father moved out of their Blue Ash home. Following their separation, the relationship between the parties continued to deteriorate. Father eventually asked for an received a domestic violence injunction against Mother.

During the final hearing in their dissolution of the marriage, among the many claims, the Father argued that the Mother had denied him the opportunity to retrieve his personal items from the Blue Ash home. During the trial, the Father testified he had left behind his family memorabilia, some religious heirlooms, and most importantly, a bottle of 1976 Glenrothes Single Malt Scotch before he had moved out of the marital home.

The Father explained to the court that while he was given a brief opportunity to collect a few of his personal items from the home, the Mother never gave him a sufficient opportunity to meaningfully collect his belongings. He testified the Mother told him that she put the items he had left behind in storage and that he would be able to retrieve them the next time she was in Ohio.

Despite the Mother’s telling him that his personal possessions were in storage, and that he would be able to retrieve them, it was just not so. In fact, the Mother would later testify that she called a trash service and had all of the Father’s personal property (his heirlooms, religious mementos, and of course, the Scotch) destroyed. She also admitted that she did not tell the Father before tossing his personal belongings in the municipal dump.

At the trial, the court ruled that because of the Mother’s destruction of Father’s bottle of 1976 Glenrothes Single Malt Scotch and his other personal effects, she was to pay him $5,000. The Mother appealed.

Florida Dissipation

I’ve written about dissipation of marital assets before. In a proceeding for dissolution of marriage, when distributing the marital assets between spouses, a family court must begin with the premise that the distribution should be equal, unless there is a justification for an unequal distribution based on all relevant factors.

Some of the factors to justify an unequal distribution of the property include things like the financial situation the parties, the length of the marriage, whether someone has interrupted their career or an educational opportunity, or how much one spouse contributed to the other’s career or education.

Another important factor is whether one of the parties intentionally dissipated, wasted, depleted, or destroyed any of the marital assets after the filing of the petition or within two years prior to the filing of the petition.

Dissipation of marital assets, such as spending marital funds on extramarital relationships, excessive gambling, and drug use, are examples which happens a lot. Less common is gifting your husband’s $1,800 bottle of scotch whiskey to trash collectors. Misconduct may serve as a basis for assigning the dissipated asset to the spending spouse when calculating equitable distribution.

When considering whether the dissipation of an asset resulted from misconduct, courts look to see if a spouse used marital funds for his or her own benefit and for a purpose unrelated to the marriage at a time when the marriage is undergoing an irreconcilable breakdown. Merely mismanaging or simple squandering of marital assets is not enough. There has to be evidence of intentional dissipation or destruction.

The Chaser

On appeal, the Mother took issue with the court’s $5,000 contempt penalty for having Father’s items destroyed. The appellate court found that the penalty constituted an equitable offset because the Mother had denied Father the opportunity to collect his equitable distribution of household goods and furnishings.

This offset included all “remaining household goods, keepsakes, and furnishings,” which would include the bottle of 1976 Glenrothes Single Malt Scotch.  Accordingly, the appellate court rule the Mother’s claim that the family court failed to include the value of the bottle of scotch in the marital assets was without merit.

The Ohio Court of Appeal opinion is here.

The Scientific Causes of Divorce

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

Even though the numbers of divorce cases are increasing, the cause of divorces has avoided scientific examination. Most people look at who gets divorced: their age, financial status, parenthood, past divorces, and their emotional stability. But two researchers from Israel are examining the lesser known subject of why people get divorced.

Divorce cause

Divorce and Statistics

Divorce, the legal dissolution of marriage, can be driven by a variety of factors, ranging from changes in the economic status or health conditions of spouses to contrasting values. The end of a marriage can often be challenging to process. Divorce can impact your personal well-being and even your mental health.

Sari Mentser and Lilach Sagiv, two researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, recently carried out a study specifically exploring the relationship between people’s values and divorce. Their findings, published in Communications Psychology, suggest that interaction between spouses’ cultural and personal values can predict divorce.

On average, the rates of divorce worldwide have increased over the past century. But it is difficult to obtain or analyze public data on divorces.

In order to compute divorce-to-marriage ratios, the researchers in Israel created an average of all divorce-to-marriage ratios available for a country over the years, and compared it to the most recent divorce-to-marriage ratio available for that country.

People all over the world have a variety of cultural and personal values, i.e. shared beliefs connected to societal norms, which can emphasize autonomy, or social stability and tradition for example. Personal values, on the other hand, are beliefs influencing the behavior of specific people. For example, one spouse could value their independence, or new experiences, or pleasure. While the other spouse could instead be more driven by a respect for traditions and social conformity.

The researchers crunched the data they collected which involved over 100,000 participants residing in more than 55 different countries worldwide.

Florida Divorce

I’ve written about the reasons for divorce before. The Israeli study is not the first study done about who has the highest divorce rates, or which jobs are the most likely to lead to a divorce. Although the statistics are interesting, from a legal perspective, the causes for a divorce are not always relevant in a court. For example, Florida is a no-fault state. No-fault laws are the result of trying to change the way divorces play out in court.

In Florida no fault laws have reduced the number of feuding couples who felt the need to resort to distorted facts, lies, and the need to focus the trial on who did what to whom.

Florida abolished fault as grounds for filing a divorce. Gone are the days when you had to prove adultery, desertion or unreasonable behavior. The only ground you need to file for divorce in Florida is to prove your marriage is “irretrievably broken.” Additionally, the mental incapacity of one of the parties, where the party was adjudged incapacitated for the prior three year, is another avenue.

Scientific Explanations

As a result of this study, the researchers found that divorce was more justifiable and likely in nations emphasizing autonomy values and among individuals ascribing importance to self-direction, stimulation, and hedonism values.

Divorce was less justifiable and likely in nations emphasizing embeddedness values, and among individuals ascribing importance to tradition and conformity values.

The results of the team’s analysis suggest that cultural and personal values interact to predict divorce. Specifically, they show that cultural values prioritizing autonomy (i.e., individual freedom) are linked to higher divorce rates, while those prioritizing social stability and tradition are linked to lower divorce rates.

They also found that people who placed a greater value on independence, new stimuli and pleasure were more likely to divorce while those who valued tradition and social harmony more were less likely to dissolve their marriage. Interestingly, the effect of these personal values on divorce appeared to be stronger in countries with a culture that emphasizes autonomy, which hints at an interaction between cultural and personal values.

The researchers conclude that divorce is sometimes the solution to an undesirable situation. Whether or not a spouse will file for divorce may depend on their personal and cultural values. Some people would rather avoid divorce at all costs while others who value change may be more open to considering divorce.

The Phys.Org article is here.

Divorce Ignorance

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

A new report by two law professors in England is showing a great deal about the public’s ignorance of divorce laws. Overall, the public’s understanding about finance and property on divorce was considered poor. However, those fortunate enough to have consulted lawyers previously were considered knowledgeable.

London divorce town

Keeping calm and carrying on

The legal experts say that thousands of people going through their divorces could be losing out due to “do it yourself” divorces. The professors from the University of Bristol authored a new report where 20,000 members of the public in England and Wales answered questions on divorce-related laws about dividing finances and property.

For example, given 10 statements about the law and asked to say whether each was true or false, the public correctly identified an average of 4.5 statements. In fact, just over half (55 per cent) of the public correctly identified at least half of the statements.

Statements Which Are Not True (in England):

  • The law says that all assets and debts should be split 50:50, regardless of whose name they were in during the marriage
  • Legally, an individual is not entitled to a share of their ex-spouse’s pension
    The law says that if an individual contributed more money during the marriage, then they are usually entitled to more than 50 per cent of the assets

Interestingly, people with higher qualifications or incomes were somewhat more likely than those with lower level qualifications or incomes to know what the law was in relation to financial remedies on divorce.

Florida Divorce

The official term for divorce in Florida is “dissolution of marriage”, and you don’t need fault as a ground for divorce. Florida abolished fault as a ground for divorce. I’ve written about divorce issues before. The no-fault concept in Florida means you no longer have to prove a reason for the divorce, like your spouse’s political views. Instead, you just need to state under oath that your marriage is “irretrievably broken”.

Before the no-fault divorce era, people who wanted to get divorce either had to reach agreement in advance with the other spouse that the marriage was over, or throw mud at each other and prove wrongdoing like adultery or abuse.

No-fault laws were the result of trying to change the way divorces played out in court. No fault laws have reduced the number of feuding couples who felt the need to resort to distorted facts, lies, and the need to focus the trial on who did what to whom.

Florida abolished fault as grounds for filing a divorce. The only ground you need to file for divorce in Florida is to prove your marriage is “irretrievably broken.” Additionally, the mental incapacity of one of the parties, where the party was adjudged incapacitated for the prior three year, is another avenue.

Dodgy Results?

The report also showed that women were more likely to know about aspects of the law relevant to having children, and men to know somewhat more about the law around the division of assets.

Additionally, and not surprisingly, divorcees were somewhat more knowledgeable about the law than others. But still, their percentages appear to be mere guesswork: they identified an average of 5.2 statements correctly compared to 4.4 statements among those who had not been through a divorce. However, the differences between divorcees and others were not large, with levels of misconception still high among divorcees.

Having a lawyer was important to knowing your rights. Among divorcees who had divorced in the previous five years: those who had used more formal routes to reaching an arrangement, or consulted or used a lawyer, tended to know more about the laws around finances on divorce than those who had not.

Those with higher levels of assets to divide on divorce tended to have a greater understanding than those with lower levels or no assets. Divorcees with dependent children were more knowledgeable than other divorcees in relation to the law around the legal position of parents with main care of their children and around the child maintenance formula, although there were still high levels of misunderstanding among parents on these issues.

With do it yourself divorces, when couples settle how to split finances without courts, the law allows them to agree any split they want. More people are now coming up with their “own solutions” surrounding divorce settlements as there is no longer legal aid in England and Wales. The findings highlighted that women had a greater understanding around law relating to children, whilst men were more likely to know the law on assets.

The professor said the lack of legal aid leads to less awareness and knowledge which is “potentially problematic” because it means that people are relying on “their own misunderstanding of the law which tends to lead to poor settlements”.

The majority of the divorcing population in England and Wales reach arrangements relating to their finances and property outside of the formal family justice system, and also that one in five divorcees seek advice and support from family and friends during the divorce process.

For these reasons, it is important to know what level of knowledge people have, and whether there are misconceptions which might be influencing the decisions made by divorcees and the advice family and friends provide.

The BBC article is here.