| background |
Are more people getting divorced because of the recession?
"Recession has always been a factor raising divorce rates," Gary S.
Becker, Professor in the Department of Economics and Sociology
and Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago, told
Forbes Magazine, as reported by Karen Blankenfield on July 7, 2008.
In contrast, a frequently-cited press release from the American
Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML), dated November 17, 2008,
announced, "37% of AAML members responded [in a recent survey]
that they typically see a decrease in the number of divorce cases
during national economic downturns, while only 19% cited an
increase during these challenging times."
Justin Wolfers, Associate Professor of Business and Public Policy at
Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, and
contributor to The New York Times' Freakonomics blog, on April 10,
2009, remarked on "just how little the divorce rate is affected by the
business cycle. . . . Divorce rates declined during the 1980's
recession and barely changed during either the 1990 or 2001
recessions. And if we examine data over the longer run, again we
see that divorce doesn't seem to move around much with the
business cycle."
In fact, the current recession does not seem to have deterred the
filing of new divorce and family law cases, at least in Maryland's five
largest jurisdictions. In Baltimore City, and Anne Arundel, Prince
George's, and Montgomery counties, the number of new cases filed
in FY 2009 (which ended June 30, 2009), showed no significant
change from FY 2008, despite a noticeable one-month dip in
November 2008. In Baltimore County, new case filings fell just over
3% between FY 2008 and FY 2009, but this decline was only 1%
more than the decline from FY 2007 to FY 2008.
NOTICE: None of the contents of this page constitutes legal advice.
To obtain legal advice, consult with an attorney. This is especially
important in divorce and family law matters, in which outcomes are
often peculiar to the particular facts and circumstances of the case.
| Recession and Divorce: Trends |
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