A Unifying Difficulty of Many Divorces in Deerfield, Illinois
By Stuart Reid | Published on March 23, 2012 | 0 Comments
There are few people who would admit that divorce is easy. Even those whose divorces went relatively well would most likely admit the attendant difficulties nonetheless. As a family lawyer in Deerfield, IL, and the owner of the Law Offices of Stuart A. Reid, P.C., Stuart Reid says that there’s still a unifying difficulty that comes along with so many divorces. Always true in a divorce, says Reid, is the challenge of figuring out how to make things work financially.
For a couple going through with divorce who have children, it’s a struggle to make sure expenses can be met in two different households. Whereas before the family was surviving economically—comfortably or uncomfortably—in a household that required only one set of expenses be met, a divorce changes all that. Now, instead of one household, the children will rely on two households. With the split in the family comes the doubling of financial need. For families that struggled to meet the obligation of expenses in a single household, divorce can introduce seemingly insurmountable economic difficulty. Whether the issue is childcare or extracurricular activities, says Reid, when a second rent, second mortgage, second set of utilities, and the cost of travel between homes is factored into the new situation, things can get tough. It becomes difficult to make ends meet.
The job of a Deerfield, IL, family lawyer is to help make the financial consequences of the divorce manageable. But this can be a tough task in the years of economic decline. In better times, people may have been able to split up and move into their own condominiums, homes, or apartments. Lately, however, Reid sees many divorcees moving in with parents or siblings because of economic hardship. No longer can the Deerfield, IL, family lawyer rely on the situation where the father and mother split but each set up their own households.
There’s a flip side to all this, however. Reid has found that the general financial hardships and the prospect of having to move in with family—rather than an independent living situation—make many couples think twice about divorce whereas in the past they may have simply gone through with it. Those who want a divorce think harder and more sensibly about what they want to get out of it, too. Reid reports that the average divorce case is faster and less expensive since the economic troubles began four years ago. These days, versus five years ago, people get more done regarding their own internal discussions about the divorce before they come to the Deerfield, IL, family lawyer. Of course, there are still divorce cases that are more like all-out battles between the couples, but for the most part, Reid sees a positive trend toward solid divorce planning and better agreement among parties.
The positive effects of this divorce trend are many. For one, people seem more able to hash out their differences over the kitchen table before seeking the help of a Deerfield, IL, family lawyer. With better agreement among divorce parties, tax issues and child custody issues are better figured out too, to the benefit of the children. Now, all this doesn’t mean that the economic downturn is good overall. What this means is that despite the many negative impacts of a recession, there was a bubble of positivity in terms of how many local divorce cases improved for the betterment of the father, mother, and children.
Deerfield, IL 60015
*Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. You should not rely on this article as a legal opinion on any specific facts or circumstances, and you should not act upon this information without seeking professional counsel. Publication of this article and your receipt of this article does not create an attorney-client relationship.