Southern California Family Law Attorney Blog

Divorce is something that has touched everyone’s life in some way. When divorce occurs in a child’s life, it can be a traumatic and confusing time. There are steps you can take to minimize the stress and provide a reassuring environment for your children.

An honest discussion helps children understand the situation. If possible, talk to your children together. Take into consideration the age and maturity of each child to determine how to approach the conversation. Whether you and your spouse discuss your decision together or separately, agree on what you plan to say before you sit down with your children. Doing so will help ensure you won’t contradict each other or make promises impossible to keep. For example, your child may assume your decision is temporary, and you and your spouse will eventually get back together. It is important not to say anything that encourages that belief and imparts a false hope to the child.

Continue reading A Divorce Attorney Advises How To Help Your Children When Going Through a Divorce

Many readers in San Bernardino, and across California, are aware that additional or significant stresses, such as financial challenges, can put pressures on a marriage that could cause it to break down. As the financial crisis that swept across the U.S. in recent years affected couples, the same stresses that were causing them to fall apart where also forcing them to stay together.

According to reports, when housing prices dropped, many couples were forced to stay together because divorcing was not financially feasible. The recovery of the U.S. housing market may have relieved some of the stresses facing married couples, but the divorce rate is once again rising. Experts reportedly contribute the rise to a couple’s ability to sell their marital home, freeing up funds from what is typically a couple’s largest asset, in order to provide each spouse with the ability to move on separately.

Continue reading Economic recovery leads to increase in divorce rate

Marriage can be difficult and, as is the case anytime a marriage is put under stress, a couple may decide that they no longer work. While military families in San Bernardino and elsewhere have always had a certain level of added stress, since the U.S. started deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, those stresses have been increased.

Recently, researchers from the RAND Corp. published the results of a study they had conducted on over 460,000 married military service members from 1999 to 2008. Among other key trends, the study reportedly showed that female military service members run a much higher risk for divorce than their male counterparts. According to reports, if within the first five years of marriage a woman in the military deploys, there is a 50-50 chance that she will divorce.

Continue reading Female military members more likely to divorce, study shows

As more states follow the example of California and offer gays the right to marry, some are concerned that the next step is ensuring that these people also have the right to get divorced if the relationship turns sour. While divorce is common in opposite-sex marriages, there may not be enough research regarding gay divorce to determine exactly how important it is to offer this option to couples. Some states are working to enact divorce laws for gay couples even as they push for the rights for gays to marry in their particular state.

Colorado is one state that allows gay couples to divorce regardless of whether they have residency in the state or not. Although the state does not offer gay marriage to couples, recent changes to civil union laws offer divorce protection for those who entered into marriage or partnership relationships in other states.

Continue reading Gay divorce offered in state that does not offer gay marriage