Boston Divorce Lawyer – Boston Divorce & Family Law Attorney Blog

As a divorce attorney, I would be lying if I said I didn’t notice the effect the Great Recession has had on my practice.  Like almost every business in any industry, I’ve noticed that fewer new clients are walking through the door.  But I wasn’t aware of the startling effect the Great Recession has had on divorce rates generally.  A recent piece by NPR’s All Things Considered informed me that  studies have shown that for every one percent increase in the unemployment rate, there is a one percent corresponding drop in the divorce rate.

This correlation isn’t due to families “doubling down” and growing closer in the face of adversity, but because couples who would otherwise part ways cannot afford to do so.  They cannot afford Court and attorney’s fees, nor do they have the cash on hand to properly divide their estate.  The end result is that people who have terminated their relationship are forced to remain married to one another, often under the same roof.  For some couples, however, this is an unbearable condition.    Throughout history, divorce rates and rates of domestic violence including homicide have shared a correlation: when divorce rates go up, domestic violence rates go down.  The end result of combining all of this information is a frightening picture: when the stressors that make divorce most likely are affecting millions of people, the same root cause places divorce out of reach.  These same stressors make domestic violence more likely, and the inability to obtain a divorce or remove oneself from the marital home make domestic violence more difficult to escape.

So what information can I provide those in such a situation?

•  You may qualify as an “indigent”, or a person who simply does not have the means to afford the fees associated with divorce.  If you do, filing fees and other court costs may be waived.  You may also be eligible for free legal advice or representation.

• Divorcing may require you to “liquidate” your assets, or to transfer property from one spouse to the other.  You should note that the IRS allows divorcing couples to transfer property between one another without incurring any taxes for such transfers.

• Lastly, you should note that if you and/or your children are being subjected to abuse by your spouse, there are both legal protections and other resources available to you.

There are certainly times when divorce is simply out of the question, but if you or someone you know is placing their physical, emotional, or mental health at risk due to the Great Recession, waiting for the economy to turn around should not be an option.

There are some things I agree with and there are some things I don’t with this ABC News report.  I agree with the “expert” that kids are not pawns to be utilized to hurt your spouse or to get more money or pay less child support.  I don’t agree that you should give a settlement figure that makes you shake.

I mostly don’t agree with this expert’s view that most of the money will go to the divorce attorneys.  He’s obviously never met me or how I run my law firm.  Since I charge flat fees, I don’t charge more to my clients simply because there’s more to do in a case.  Lots (or a majority) of divorce lawyers in and around Boston that I know, do do that.  That is what’s so great about flat-fees.  Your attorney’s interest in resolving the case is aligned with the client’s interest.  There is no incentive to drag the case out longer because the lawyer will get richer.

You’re divorcing and you need to sell your house that you own jointly with your spouse but with the recession, your house is now worth less than the mortgage that you have on it.  You’re under water. You’re upside down on your mortgage.  Whatever you call it, you’re stuck and don’t know what to do.

Well, here are your choices:

1. You stay in the house with your divorced spouse until either one of you can afford to move out or refinance.  You might be thinking to yourself that that is ridiculous.  Who would ever live with their divorced spouse AFTER the divorce?!  More and more people are doing so in this new economy because there is simply not enough money to go around.  It’s a sucky situation but it’s a reality.
2. You and your spouse continue to co-own the house together until someone can refinance the property.  Either you live in the house or your spouse lives in the house.  You could have a situation where only the person who’s living in the house pays for everything or everything is split 50/50.  Either way, you two will still own a house together.
3. You refinance.  If you try to refinance, know that you will have to put up the money to make up the difference between what you owe and what your house is worth.  That would be tens of thousands of dollars if not more.  Some people have that kind of money but most do not.
4. You do a short sale.  A short sale is when you get the permission of your mortgage lender to sell the house for less than what you owe on the mortgage and hopefully, you negotiate that you won’t have to make up the difference.  Know that most lenders will not extend the option for a short sale unless if you’re behind on your mortgage payments by several months.  At that point, your credit would’ve taken a hit already.
5. You let the home go into foreclosure.  This is not an ideal situation and it’s not generally recommended.
6. You try to negotiate a modification or an assumption of the current mortgage.  This is very difficult and very lender specific.  Some will let you  modify the loan or do an assumption whereby you don’t have to refinance the house and yet be allowed to remove a spouse’s name off the mortgage.  It’s worth a try.

Those are all your options.  The important thing to remember is this:  do not ever sign over a deed of the house over to your spouse’s sole name without also being off the mortgage.  If you do so, you will have no equity interest in the property yet be liable for the mortgage (debt interest).

In short, this is the education hoax:

The education hoax causes a lot of people to go to college and graduate school who perhaps wouldn’t have benefited from the experience.  We all aspire for our kids to be college graduates and lawyers and doctors, but truth is, not every child is cut out for college or graduate school.  And when we push them into it, are we really doing them a disservice?

Forbes magazine recently published an article linking the eduction hoax directly to the breakdown of a couple’s marriage.  The stress of having over $190,000 in student loans from law school, was simply too much strain to place on their marriage.  So, like the majority of divorced couples in the United States, the couple divorced over money.

I recently had the priviledge to contribute as an expert on Jennifer Scott’s article for Bankrate.com entitled “Seeking an ex-spouse’s 401(k) can be thorny“.  The finely written article gives advice on how to navigate the often dangerous waters of actually splitting a retirement account that has been awarded to one of the spouses of a divorce.

If I had to condense the article into a one-liner, it would be this:  Have a knowledgable divorce lawyer draft up the separation agreeement and subseqent Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) as soon as possible to avoid loss of funds and headache.  Here in Massachusetts, a divorce lawyer or a knowledgable financial advisor can easily work together to draft a QDRO before the divorce action is finalized.