Articles Posted in 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.

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.

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.

Divorce comes in many varieties, including “no fault.” Including North Carolina, almost every state in the nation permits no-fault divorce. California was the first state in the country to pass no-fault divorce laws in 1969, and many states followed suit quickly. Only one state is still currently an exception: New York, which forces one side to prove that the other was at fault before the couple may obtain a divorce. However, New York’s state senate recently approved a bill that would permit no-fault divorce in the state and would allow couples to cite irreconcilable differences as grounds for the termination of a marriage. The state assembly should vote on the change within the next few weeks.

No-fault divorce is a divorce in which neither party must prove wrongdoing by the other in order to obtain a divorce decree. States that allow no-fault divorce permit a judge to grant a divorce by the petition of either party. In North Carolina, a husband and wife must be separated for at least one year before they may obtain a Judgment of Absolute Divorce.

Because New York is the only state without no-fault divorce laws currently, many lawyers note that couples in failing marriages are often forced to essentially lie to a judge in order to prove the other was at fault by one of three standards: adultery, abandonment, or cruel and inhuman treatment. Under New York law, only if both parties notarize a separation agreement and live separately for one year, can a judge grant a divorce. The proposed change could be most significant for the state’s many wealthy residents, who would be able to focus on the division of their assets rather than manufacturing reasons for their own divorce.