Charlotte Divorce Lawyer BlogIs it easier to remodel houses than people? Interior and architectural designers are finding that they have greater psychological issues to deal with than do most client-based professionals simply because they transform homes into personal living spaces for couples. Designers find that couples can disagree over the simplest things, such as fabrics or wallpaper, and will end up battling over matters that were previously unforeseeable to both of them.
Articles Posted in Divorce
Should the Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services to Flag Illegal Immigrants?
According to the Charlotte Observer, Mecklenburg County Commissioners are currently in discussions over whether to accept a proposal that will require the reporting of undocumented family members of American-born children receiving public benefits. Commissioner Bill James is asking the Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services to ignore state and federal regulations and alert immigration officials or the sheriff’s office when it suspects that an illegal immigrant has applied for welfare or food stamps for his or her U.S.-born children. James believes that the state is handing out benefits by using so-called “anchor babies” as a cover for its actions. Under the 14th Amendment, citizenship is automatically granted to any child who is born in the United States.
A recent study released by the Pew Hispanic Center revealed that the number of children in this country with at least one undocumented parent increased from 2.7 million in 2003 to 4 million in 2008. Furthermore, more than 70 percent of all children of illegal immigrants are United States citizens.
Highest Divorce Rates (15 Jobs)
Radford University in Virginia recently released a list of the 15 professions with the highest divorce rates in the country. The Radford study indicates that professional dancers and choreographers are most likely to get divorced, while maids and housekeeping cleaners are the least likely to be divorced on the list. Other professions who made the list, in order from highest rate to lowest rate of divorce: Bartenders, massage therapists, gaming cage workers, extruding machine operators, gaming service workers, factory workers in the food and tobacco industries, nursing, psychiatric and home health aides, entertainers and performers, baggage porters and concierges, telemarketers, waiters, and roofers.
Divorce Attorney Fees Paid by Divorce Insurance
Now you can buy divorce insurance to cover your divorce attorney fees. The average cost of an American divorce this year ranged from about $15,000 to $30,000. As a result, the North Carolina-based insurance company SafeGuard Guaranty Corporation is now selling a divorce insurance product called WedLock. A unit of WedLock runs insureds $16 per month and provides $1,250 to cover expenses such as legal proceedings. Insureds can buy multiple units, and for every year they keep their policy, SafeGuard will reward them with another $250 of coverage for each unit they own.
How does WedLock work? When a married couple files for divorce, the policyholders simply send in their divorce papers to receive cash from SafeGuard. To prevent spouses who are already planning a divorce from working the system, SafeGuard require at least 36 months from the effective date until spouses can claim their coverage.
On its website, SafeGuard provides a Divorce Cost Calculator and a Divorce Probability Calculator for those who are unable to decide whether they need to procure divorce insurance.
Divorce Lawyers and Career Women
A recent study released in the October issue of the Journal of Family Issues indicates that career women who are the family breadwinners are nearly 40% more likely to get a divorce than women without the same economic resources. This study, based on data covering 25 years, examines the relationship between wives’ economic resources and the risk of marital dissolution. The author of the study found that the economic resources of women are tightly linked to the risk of divorce, both negatively and positively.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women were the majority of payroll employees as of March 2010. Researchers found that the tipping point occurs when the wife pulls in at least 60% of the family’s income. Couples in this position were 38% more likely in any given year to get divorced. Race was also a factor, as divorce was much more common for white couples than black couples.
The author of the study also emphasized the importance of the generational divide: while Baby Boomers and Generation X couples may still believe in the male breadwinner, the Millennial generation may feel differently. The author indicates that the group of women represented in the study did not include the Millennial generation, who may expect or desire to be their families’ breadwinners.
The Summer of Divorce
This Charlotte divorce attorney found that according to a recent article in the New York Times, divorce is everywhere these days, and Americans are enjoying taking part in vicarious divorce. Our culture is both surrounded and fascinated by it. The biggest adult film of the summer, “Eat Pray Love,” centers on a divorce. The highly popular television series of the summer, “Mad Men,” revolves around a divorced couple. The most talked-about revival on Broadway of the summer, “Promises, Promises,” focuses on divorce. The most newsworthy memoir of the year, Andrew Young’s “The Politician,” chronicles the affair of John Edwards that eventually led to a notorious political divorce. The country watched with fascination the dissolution of various political marriages, such as the Edwardses, the Gores, and the Sanfords. Celebrities such as Sandra Bullock, Susan Sarandon, Tiger Woods, and Kelsey Grammar have made headlines all year with their sordid breakups and divorces. Was the summer of 2010 the summer of divorce?
Although our country seems obsessed with divorce, the actual divorce rate is plummeting. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the divorce rate in America is at a 30-year low, down 8 percent in the last five years, 16 percent since 2000, and 34 percent since its peak in 1979. Approximately 20,000 fewer American couples are divorcing every year as compared with a decade ago. Although the country’s fascination with divorce and its decreasing divorce rate may be difficult to reconcile, experts observe that Americans seem to be talking about divorce more, while actually divorcing less.
Family Law Attorneys and Indefinite Separation
According to a recent New York Times article, more couples facing marital strife are now choosing to stay separated indefinitely rather than file for divorce. Many spouses who choose to live apart and carry on separate lives are still connected by the bonds of marriage: they file joint tax returns, carry joint insurance policies, and even occasionally visit one another. However, even long-estranged couples are bound by contractual issues like taxes, pensions, Social Security, and healthcare coverage.
target=”_blank”Charlotte divorce lawyers and marriage therapists report that the motivation for most couples to remain married is financial. Under federal law, an ex-spouse qualifies for a share of a spouse’s Social Security payment if the marriage lasts a decade. Occasionally, if a divorce is proceeding amicably, financial advisors and lawyers may urge a couple who have been married for nearly ten years to wait until the dependent spouse qualifies. For some couples, a separation agreement may be negotiated between the parties so that one spouse can keep the other’s insurance until he or she qualifies for Medicare. Thus, in the current economic recession, there is an incentive for couples to separate indefinitely: to avoid the real estate lows and the high care expense highs.
One family law attorney quoted by the New York Times reported that the biggest surprise to her was her clients’ primary consideration behind indefinite separation. She reports that the clients consider practical and financial, rather than familial, ramifications. The effect of these separations on the couple’s children rarely seems to be a priority. Furthermore, indefinite separations can leave a mess for survivors, as a spouse will still have legal rights to a predeceased spouse’s estate, even if separated.
In-Laws, Divorce and Lawyers
This month, Bristol Palin, the daughter of former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, announced her engagement to her son’s father, Levi Johnston. However, Johnston is facing a long road ahead with his future in-laws after making accusations about them over the past year and engaging in some questionable public behavior.
Johnston is not the only future son-in-law who needs to work to smooth over in-law relations, according to studies conducted by the National Marriage Project. Researchers report that married couples with more support from their in-laws tend to encounter less conflict in their marriages. Disagreements between spouses and in-laws usually arise when parents have difficulty letting go of their grown children. Unrealistic expectations from in-laws can also fuel arguments, particularly between wives and mothers-in-law.
For those suffering from in-law induced distress, there are dozens of online venting forums and Facebook groups available for spouses to complain and seek solace among fellow sons and daughters in-law. However, most marriage experts suggest that a spouse who dislikes his or her in-laws should address any problems with them directly.
Marriage, Divorce and A.D.H.D. in Charlotte, North Carolina
Mental health experts recently reported that Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or A.D.H.D., may be unknowingly taking a toll on many adult relationships. Studies suggested that at least 4 percent of adults now have A.D.H.D. and that as many as half of all children diagnosed with A.D.H.D. do not fully outgrow it and continue to struggle with the symptoms in adulthood. In a marriage, the common symptoms of the disorder, such as distraction, disorganization, and forgetfulness, can easily be misinterpreted as laziness, selfishness, and a lack of love and concern.
Adults with A.D.H.D. often learn coping skills to help them stay organized and focused at work, but continue to struggle at home, where they have a tendency to become distracted from household tasks. Some research suggests that adults with A.D.H.D. are twice as likely to be divorced, where another study found high levels of distress in 60 percent of marriages in which one spouse had A.D.H.D.
In these marriages, one spouse can be left with 100 percent of the family responsibility when the other spouse forgets to attend to certain tasks, leaving the responsible spouse frustrated and the spouse with the disorder confused by their partner’s anger. Long to-do lists or messy homes feel overwhelming to a brain with A.D.H.D., causing the spouse to retreat to a friendly distraction, such as a computer or video game. If the other spouse does not know that distraction is the issue, he or she may start to think that the spouse simply does not care about the problem at hand.
Is Divorce Contagious in Charlotte, North Carolina?
According to a recent study conducted by a trio of researchers from Brown, Harvard, and the University of California – San Diego, divorce can be contagious and can spread between friends, siblings, and coworkers. The research relies on data from the Framingham Heart Study in Massachusetts, which studied the lives of more than 12,000 Americans living in Framingham since 1948.
The study indicates that if a close friend’s marriage is on the rocks, your chance of divorce increases by 75 percent. If the friend follows through with the divorce, your chance of divorce increases by another 33.3 percent. Whether or not a friend’s divorce has an adverse effect on your marriage depends largely on your perception of how the divorced couple handled it. The study also found that the more friends a husband and wife have together, the lower their chances of divorce. The odds are also lowered for couples who have had children, as couples with more children have a lower susceptibility of being influenced by divorced peers.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2008 data, nearly 50 percent of marriages end in divorce within the first 15 years.