Jacksonville Divorce Lawyer Blog

September 25, 2010

New Study Examines Divorce Rates According to Occupation

If you are married to a dancer or choreographer, you may want to have the number of a good divorce lawyer handy. A new study that looks at divorce rates of certain occupations found that dancers have the highest divorce rate at 43.1 percent. If your main objective is to never get a divorce, consider marrying an engineer.

The study, conducted by Michael Aamodt, a professor at Radford University and consultant for DCI Consulting Group in Washington, D.C., was published in the Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology. Aamodt started out to research the personalities of law enforcement officers, but found statistics on domestic lives by occupation hard to come by until he asked the Census Bureau to parse their data based on divorce and separation rates for 449 job categories.

The top three occupations with high divorce rates include the aforementioned dancers and choreographers, bartenders (38.4 percent) and massage therapists (38.2 percent). Also included in the top ten were casino workers, telephone operators, nurses and home health aides.

September 24, 2010

Adoption Approved for Gay Man in Florida

By Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.

Robert Lamarche has become the fourth gay Floridian to adopt a child as the 1977 Florida law prohibiting adoption by gay men and lesbians remains under review by a Miami appeals court, according to a story in the Palm Beach Post.

Lamarche, who works at a private adoption agency in Fort Lauderdale, was approved as an adoptive parent by Broward County juvenile court Judge Hope Bristol, who said that Lamarche’s adoption of a teenage boy he has fostered for two years is in the minor’s best interest. She also wrote that the 1977 Florida law is unconstitutional, and the state is not objecting to her ruling.

Lamarche, who has a master’s degree in social work, met his adopted son four years ago, when the boy was 11 and had been moved from foster home to foster home as the result of abuse and neglect. After two years of watching the boy being moved around, Lamarche was given permission to serve as a formal mentor.

September 23, 2010

How to Avoid Making Money Mistakes in Divorce

By Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.

Aside from all the negative emotions, divorce is essentially a business transaction – a division of assets – unless, of course, children are involved. Then it is even more important to get the money part right.

Forewarned is forearmed. Here are some of the most common money mistakes made in divorce:

Taking an offer just to get it over. Since you will be making financial decisions that will determine your financial future, take the time to get it right. Consult with a financial professional so that you understand all the financial impacts of the settlement and do not always assume that an “equal” share is a fair share.

September 22, 2010

Dealing With the Financial Challenges of Divorce

By Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.

An article at the Huffington Post by Visa senior director Jason Alderman, who heads up that company’s financial literacy initiative, provides some good advice on dealing with the financial challenges of divorce.

With Florida’s current economy, the financial challenges of divorce are many, including dealing with unemployment, underwater mortgages, investment accounts that have lost value and affordable health insurance. He offers the following tips to help divorcing couples in Florida:

Seek out good advice. Getting a Florida divorce with a do-it-yourself kit is not a good idea, even if your assets are few. Hiring an attorney that specializes in divorce can help you avoid problems down the road. You should also consider speaking with a financial planner for advice on how to divide property and assets so you can both afford to set up separate households.

September 21, 2010

Florida Divorce: Co-Parenting With Your Ex

By Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.

Thousands of Florida children are impacted every year by divorce, and according to research from relationship skills training organization PAIRS Foundation, children of divorce are three times more likely to have problems in school and five times more likely to commit a crime.

Child and adolescent psychologist Dr. Jennifer Hartstein offers three tips for effective co-parenting to stop trouble before it begins:

1. Respect each other. You do not have to like each other, but you do need to exhibit respect and positive ways of resolving conflict to present a good model of that behavior for your children. Speaking negatively about each other creates resentment and anger in your children.

September 20, 2010

Florida Divorce and Parental Alienation

By Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.

The effort of one parent to turn a child against the other parent has become known as “Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS)”, a disorder first identified by psychiatrist Dr. Richard A Gardner in the 1980s in association with the growth in child custody litigation.

Dr. Gardner, who was a clinical professor in Columbia University’s Division of Child Psychiatry, was a consistent advocate for fathers in custody battles. Later research done into PAS has shown that a child’s alienation from one parent is usually the result of systemic dysfunction within a family that begins well before divorce.

Whether PAS is a true medical disorder is still being debated, but any divorce lawyer will tell you that parental alienation does exist, and it is an unfortunate circumstance for both children and the target parent. So how can you tell if your child is at risk for parental alienation? Here are some widely recognized risk factors:

September 18, 2010

73 Percent of Divorce Lawyers Cite Increase in Prenups

By Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.

A recent poll conducted by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML) reveals that prenuptial agreements have increased in popularity over the past five years, especially among women.

Approximately 73 percent of matrimonial lawyers polled said they have seen an increase in requests for prenuptial agreements; 52 percent said they have experienced an increase in women making the request.

The poll also found that 36 percent of attorneys surveyed said they had seen an increase in the inclusion of pensions and retirement benefits in prenuptial agreements, signaling a shifting change in the importance of how these assets are viewed in light of the current economy.

September 17, 2010

How to Prepare Financially for a Divorce

By Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.

Few things can disrupt a carefully planned financial future like a divorce. So how do you prepare yourself financially for an impending divorce?

Prepare. Understanding the financial implications of divorce is the first step in becoming properly prepared. In most marriages, one spouse takes on the main responsibility for the couple’s finances. If you are the spouse who is not totally informed about your financial condition, get informed as quickly as possible. Get a full accounting of all your assets and expenses. Collect financial data about your bank accounts, retirement accounts, pension plans, IRAs, 401(k)’s, life insurance policies and other assets as well as your liabilities (credit card debt, mortgages, loans, etc.).

Manage your expectations. When one household becomes two, each spouse must take a realistic approach to financial planning. Chances are very good that you will not enjoy the same lifestyle you had when you were together. Make good financial decisions for you and your children – which may mean that you cannot afford to keep the family home.

September 16, 2010

Would A Prenuptial Agreement Have Saved This Relationship?

By Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.

Profiled in a recent New York Times story, Allison Brooke Eastman learned another way that debt can devastate. Once her fiancé discovered that she had more than $170,000 in student loan debt, he broke off the engagement.

These days, it is not uncommon for people to bring significant debt to a relationship. And, as illustrated by Ms. Eastman’s story, it is also common for couples to fail to address debt issues prior to entering marriage. An advantage of prenuptial agreements is that they force the discussion so that “unpleasant” issues are brought to the forefront and dealt with prior to marriage.

People who bring debt to a marriage – whether it is one or both of them in the relationship – should decide how that debt will be treated during the marriage as well as in the case of a divorce. From a legal standpoint, it is likely that any debt one spouse brings to a marriage would remain his or hers alone after a divorce. But would the other spouse be entitled to a “refund” of monies he or she spent to pay down the other’s debt? What if the debt-ridden spouse becomes incapacitated and can no longer work – or wants to quit their job to stay home and take care of the children? How is the debt paid then? These are all valid questions that can and should be addressed as part of a prenuptial agreement discussion.

September 15, 2010

Divorce Ceremony Big Business in Japan

By Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.

Divorce-broken%20heart.jpg Although it is still considered culturally taboo, one in four Japanese marriages end in divorce. To make it more palatable, the Japanese have devised a ritual that is growing in popularity as a symbolic way to end a marriage and find closure: the divorce ceremony.

As outlined at CNN.com, a Japanese divorce ceremony is similar to a wedding ceremony, but with a decidedly different outcome. It begins with the couple being pulled through the streets in separate rickshaws, with friends and family walking behind them. The ride ends at a “purposely shabby storefront” that has the words “Refresh” and “Divorce” written on the outside.

The couple and spouse enter, and a master of the ceremony gives a short speech about how the couple has grown apart and decided to end their marriage. He invites everyone to say farewell. Then the couple smashes the soon-to-be ex-wife’s wedding ring with a hammer painted green like a frog (which in Japanese culture symbolizes change). A short reception follows, with the couple sitting back-to-back at separate tables. Party favors are chopsticks – because it is two things you can pull apart easily. After the ceremony, the couple bows to each other politely and departs to live their separate lives.