Spike in Divorces Likely After the Lockdowns

Published Jun 2, 2020, 3:54 PM

Peter Stambleck, a partner at matrimonial firm, Aronson Mayefsky & Sloan, discusses the likely spike in divorces in the U.S. after the pandemic. In China divorces hit record high numbers in several cities as couples emerged from weeks of government-mandated shutdowns. June Grasso hosts.

You're listening to Bloomberg Law with June Grasso from Bloomberg Radio. Four words have been said in countless movies with anger, sorrow or relief, I want a divorce, So did you design? Will more Americans be saying I want a divorce after the pandemic? It's no secret that living in isolation with your spouse during these trying times can cause tension, conflict, and stress. If China is any example, divorces will skyrocket. Many cities in China are reporting a record high number of divorce filings after couples began to emerge from mandated shutdowns, leading to long backlogs at government offices where clerks are struggling to keep up. Joining me is Peter Stambleck, a partner at Aaronson, Mayevski and Sloan, a matrimonial law firm. Peter, have you been seeing an uptick in calls from people wanting a divorce during the pandemic in the past week? There has been a bit of an uptick up until this point. The truth of the matter is things have been a bit quiet, and that was anticipated as people are confined in their own space with the uncertainty that presents itself. Couples are not necessarily running into more uncertainty, in other words, into a divorce. As things begin to open up and the courts begin to open up, offices begin to open up, we expect to see a large uptick in our planning accordingly. So now the uptick this week is that due to New York courts lifting the moratorium on new cases as of Monday, new actions, brand new litigation was able to be commenced. Prior to that, it was only matters that were deemed essential were permitted, So our hands were tied on many different levels. If somebody reached out to us and wanted to commence an action for divorce, we were not permitted to do so. Effective Monday, we are now permitted to do so. I actually don't think that it has to do necessarily with the courts opening up. I actually think it has to do with the state opening up and the country opening up a little bit, piece by piece, phase by phase. I believe that that is going to be the crux of what gets people back into the process, whether they were contemplating it prior to the pandemic and just waited it out, whether or not the pandemic and being isolated with their spouse created additional frictions, or they're already underlying issues and the pandemic just exascerbated them. Those are the reasons that people are calling us, and I do believe it. It has little to do with the courts and is more have to do with, believe it or not, the weather, people getting outside, Memorial Day, the state opening up more, country opening up a little bit more. Even if just it's the perception, I believe that's what the uptick this past week or so has has been a result of. In times of crisis, whether national crisis or personal crisis, do you often see an increase in divorces. But I think problems in marriages are most certainly magnified during a crisis. And needless to say, this is a crisis like we've never seen before, especially given that we've been in isolation with our families, with our spouses for the better part of March April May, over three months now. I don't think we've seen a crisis that has caused couples and families to be in such close quarters for such a period of time. I was thinking about this the other day. If you just take a quick look back prior to the pandemic, what our typical day was like for couples. They got up, you know, they spent a little bit time together in the morning, they went off to work, they did their things, they came back, they spent a little bit of time together in the evenings. Certainly more time together on the weekends. Anybody who's kids know, as you're running around on the weekends with your kids, So this is unprecedented time being spent with your spouse. After the crash in two thousand eight, we saw an uptick uncertainty, and I expect that our phones will continue to ring, and we will continue to see an uptick in people who realize life is too short and there were problems to begin with, Now is an opportune time to to get out. I think that for all those reasons, we will probably see an increase in rates. And the pandemic is the undercurrent of all that. So now you're going to have some people with less money, some people unemployed for one case, that are down, bank accounts that are down. Is there a detriment or benefit to getting divorced now? And does it depend on how much money you have? I was gonna say, I guess it depends on what side you're on. So the things that you've just identified certainly provide incentive to the so called money spouse, the wage earner, or the asset holder. You know, the crux of a divorce is valuing and dividing assets. So what assets will be worth on the other side of this pandemic right now is without question unknown. But for most businesses and most assets, especially small businesses and small business owners, the predictions from across the board are that these assets will be worth far less. New York City real estate, for instance, maybe taking a hit as well as a result of people wanting out of the city. Certainly portfolios are down. Defer, compensation values are down. So for the moneyed spouse it is an opportune time to commence an action for divorce. The less things are valued, the less there is to share, especially if that particular spouse feels that at some point in the not too distance future, he or she may get back on his or her feet, or values may ultimately increase because anything that theoretically is accumulated post divorce or host commencement of a divorce would not be subject to distribution so that's one incentive for the moneyed spouse to pursue a divorce. Now. Another reason maybe that support, both child and spousal support is an issue, and if those issues need to be addressed, the less a spouse made, the less In theory he or she would be paying in both spousal and child support. Support is primarily based on income, and if income is down, one is going to be expected to pay less support, so there is real incentive obviously if if somebody was thinking about a divorce or the pandemic push them through divorce, there is certainly incentive at this juncture for the quote unquote moneyed spouse to push forward with this now as opposed to later. On the flip side of it, you know, the non money spouse may not be in a great position. They may want to hold off to see how things rebound. But of course, in most states it really only takes one party to pursue the divorce action. And I wonder if some couples who don't have money might be holding out now because of the cost of divorce and also having to split things up, having to have two residences and health insurance. Absolutely divorces costly, and I don't necessarily mean the process. You have to replicate two households. You need to take whatever income stream exists at the time, and you need to kind of split that amongst two households, and two households are just more expensive than one. Health insurance is a huge issue. So those are certainly reasons why I think pandemic or no pandemic, those are reasons why people don't get divorced in the first place, even if they live separate lives. Throughout my career, I've met with numerous people who have stayed in the marriage but live completely separate lives except financially, because they just can't afford to They can't afford to get that second house, and they can't afford to get their own insurance, so they stay married. There must be thousands and thousands of couples around the country who who do that. Have you gotten calls about problems with child custody or visitation during the pandemic, for example, issues about children traveling from parent to parent, So that's that's kind of eased a little bit. But at the very beginning you had people beholding their ground mothers or fathers, not trusting what the other parent was doing, or where they were, who they were with that they were taking social distancing and the quarantine seriously enough. You had people who maybe even started their spring break somewhere and weren't willing to come home. What we found is that to the extent that we were able to get in touch with the courts, the majority of the judges and the courts wanted the parties to adhere to the parenting schedule that was implemented prior to that absolutely unique circumstance. They wanted the parents to adhere to the schedule that they had previously agreed to. Judge Sunshine, who is out of Brooklyn, he issued a statement the New Yorkloor Journal maybe in late March early April, basically noting that parents should adhere to the schedules that they previously agreed to, and if they take it upon themselves or engage in what we call self help, with the theory that nobody can run into court where the courts were backed up or closed, that one day soon those parents would be before the court and not liking what he or she would be here. So, by all accounts, the courts were trying to direct that parents were cooperatively during this difficult time, take this seriously, but adhere to the schedule that had been administered to. Obviously, with everything that we've had, we experienced a handful of cases here and there where phone calls were required with the court where motions had to be made with the court to ask that a parent abide by the schedule. But truth be told, a lot of parents stepped up to the plate and did the right thing and work cooperatively. And whether it's altering their schedule or just getting the children back and forth to the necessary place, a lot of parents stepped up to the plate. I certainly saw that. Quite frankly, I think I saw that more then I saw adversarial behavior. Domestic violence calls have been on the rise during the pandemic. Have victims of domestic violence been able to get help from the courts? They were? The Family Court was open for domestic violence related issues emergency filings. That was one of the matters wherein you were able to get into court immediately from day one. That was part of the essential matters that could be filed in court from day one, at least in New York, you were able to get in right away. By all accounts, and by the people. I've spoken with um an officer of the Family Law section of the New York State Bar Association, so have a lot of communication with attorneys from across the state. The calls have been substantially increased across the country for domestic violence related issues. Thanks Peter. That's Peter stand Black of Aaron Senmayevski and Sloan. And that's it for the edition of Bloomberg Long I'm June Grosso. Thanks so much for listening, and remember to tune to The Bloomberg Long Show weeknights at anth m Eastern right here on Bloomberg Radio.

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Host June Grasso speaks with prominent attorneys and legal scholars, analyzing major legal issues an 
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