Kirk Stange, a family law lawyer with 25 years in the company, told NPR that divorce deposits had taken their peak in March and April, then in August and September.
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VIKEN KANTARCI / AFP via Getty Images
Kirk Stange keeps an eye on the calendar – and right now, he is enjoying the summer holidays.
Stange is not a student. He is a family law lawyer with 25 years in the company. In a recent interview, he told NPR that he had noticed a model: divorce deposits reached two peaks per year – one at the end of the summer and the other in early spring.
“It is a very seasonal company,” said the divorced father of two children, adding that he is similar to the Rush CPA race to come in April.
Stangre has 27 offices in nine states, and has held meticulous registers on the influx of new customers in the last decade. “Each year, we see the same thing, whatever the state we look at,” he said.
While January is often called “Divorce month“Widely motivated by New Year’s resolutions, Stange said that it was one of the slowest months of the year for lawyers in his office.
“In December and January, the parties simply have no tendency to initiate divorce and family law procedures,” he said, adding that “it is a 50%drop”.
“Whether they celebrate Christmas or Hanukka or Kwanzaa, then the New Year, people generally suspended these cases,” said Stanges. “It seems to be true, no matter what we do. We could spend money on advertising and try to do things, but it just doesn’t work.”
Raiford Dalton Palmer, a divorce lawyer in Chicago, said that he lived these same annual models. “We have been in this company since More than 30 years and our figures support it, “he said.
Most From his customers are people with children, so he said he was logical that they plan their divisions for a less disruptive time.
Once the holidays are passing, there are usually spring holidays to face, then summer vacation with the family. It is only after they have tapered, said Palmer, the unhappy married couples act finally – generally before the start of the new school year.
“It continues a bit like a wave based on the events of people’s life,” said Palmer.
In his own business, he sees a drop of around 30% to 35% in divorce files during these major family binding hours of the year, he said.
Divorce is motivated by the calendar of the “domestic ritual”, according to a study
Lawyers are not the only experts with data indicating this model. A 2016 study From the University of Washington which analyzed data from the divorce deposit through the state from 2001 to 2015, found that they “constantly culminated in March and August”.
The study examined the data of all 39 counties of Washington, except two, where marriages can be completed by mail.
The author of the study and professor of sociology Julie Brines told the UW News that the legal proceedings could be motivated by a “domestic ritual” calendar which revolves around the winter and summer holidays.
“People tend to face the holidays with growing expectations, despite the disappointments they may have had in recent years,” she said. “They represent periods of the year when there is anticipation or the opportunity of a new start, a new start, something different, a transition to a new period of life. It is like a cycle of optimism, in a sense.”
That, she said, hypothesized, couples hang couples for at least a few more months.
“These are very symbolically busy moments for culture,” added Brines.
More divorce models have emerged in recent decades
Carol Lee Roberts, president of the Institute for Divorce Financial Analysts, rejects the idea that unhappy couples are on the separation of sentimental reasons.
“The idea that divorces are reaching a peak in March because it is just after the filing of joint income statements, or every August because it is the end of summer and you have just returned from family vacation and simply cannot take this for a minute more” is inaccurate, said Roberts at NPR.
She said that the number of deposits in a given month does not indicate much. “Many states have specific waiting periods before they can even serve the other party. Other states do not have this type of rules,” said Roberts.
She also noted 2015 search showing These 37% of married people have been thinking about divorce for two years or more.
Overall, the number of divorces in the United States continued to lower, compared to a rate of 4 divorces per 1,000 people in 2000 to 2.4 per 1,000 people in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2023, Louisiana saw The least divorce with only 0.9 for 1,000 people; Illinois was the second lower with 1.2 for 1,000 people. Wyoming and Idaho were tied to states with the highest rate, with 3.4 divorces per 1,000 people.
Roberts has said that a larger model that has emerged in recent decades is The average age of divorced people.
“The only demography in the United States that has increased divorce rates is people over 50 … She has doubled since 1990. She has tripled for people over the age of 60 during the same period,” said Roberts.
Part of what contributes to these so-called “Gray divorces” People live longer – and the fact that for many, it may be a second or third marriage that ends, according to Roberts.
And more and more, she said that they are women who rank to end their wedding.
“Part of the things we think we are contributing to this is that there is increased financial independence, there is an increased gain capacity of women. And often the woman wins not only a spouse, but there are many cases where women are now the main family support,” added Roberts.
An “exceptional culture” of divorce on the horizon
For the moment, Stange, the lawyer in family law, appreciates the advantages of the slowness of this period of the year in his office. But he said he will have to think about accelerating soon.
It will spend more on marketing and hiring in about a month, while it expects to fill the currently vacant positions to manage an increase in calls and new customers.
A bit like a farmer, he joked by saying that the end of summer is his version of the “months of exceptional culture of new cases”.