NEW YEAR – NEW BEGINNINGS

By: James McGlew II, Esq.
Annual studies repeatedly show that the most common month for individuals to file for divorce is January. The reasons for this are many and varied. Most people, for obvious reasons, do not want to address emotionally charged issues over the holiday season preferring a more peaceful Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year. For couples whose pending divorce is more driven by financial considerations, and less by emotions, there can be tax consequences which relate to the timing of filing for divorce. And still others who have come to the conclusion that the dissolution of their marriage is inevitable, often times decide that a “new year” is the best time for a “new start.”
Over the course of my career as a family law attorney I have come to believe that the “best” time to make this difficult decision is when an individual is emotionally prepared and after they know that all attempts to make their marriage work have been exhausted. On a more positive note, a recent report
On a more positive note, a recent report showed that New Jersey had the fourth lowest divorce rate (just 12.9 per 1,000 people) in the United States for 2015. Married couples in New Jersey beat the national divorce average of 16.9 per 1,000, a rate which is a 35-year low, according to the National Center for Family & Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University in Kentucky.
The only couples more dedicated to the institution of marriage are those residing in Hawaii, Wisconsin and Rhode Island. In Hawaii, divorce rates are lowest with only 11.1 per 1,000 calling it a day, followed closely by Wisconsin (12.4 per 1,000) and Rhode Island (12.6 per 1,000). Where might you not wish to live if you want to stay together? The answer is Washington, DC which the same study confirmed had the highest divorce rate at 29.9 per 1,000. Nationwide, the divorce rate dropped significantly from 17.6 in 2014 to 16.9 in 2015 which marks the lowest rate since 1980.
Before anyone assumes that couples are now more likely to stay together for emotional or economic reasons, some researchers say that a primary reason for the decrease in divorce may be that fewer Americans are getting married at all and those who do are getting married at an older age.
Lindabury’s Family Law Group has decades of experience representing clients in divorce and other serious New Jersey family law matters. We provide the full range of divorce and family law services and are easily accessible from our Westfield New Jersey office.