Now that Thanksgiving is around the corner and we're headed into the busy holiday season, we're approaching January, which many divorce attorneys call "divorce month." The holiday lights may be coming down around New Year's, but that doesn't stop our phones from lighting up like Christmas trees.
Divorce law firms are busy after the holidays; the surge begins on "Divorce Monday," the first Monday of January, according to James McLaren, the president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.
The surge begins in January and continues into early March. What is it about January? If you have a family, you can probably guess why some couples choose to wait.
Often, unhappy couples don't want to break up the family during Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas or New Year's. For some, it doesn't feel right to file for divorce during the holidays. People also want to wait until January because there's less room on the court's schedule from Thanksgiving through New Year's.
It can be difficult to arrange court dates when spouses, attorneys, and courts have limited schedules. That said, there isn't a "perfect" time to file for divorce. For some it's in January, while for others it's during the summer while the kids are on summer break. Still, some people file for divorce in November and December. It's individual so it all depends on the couple.
Even when couples have already decided to file for divorce, they often go their separate ways after the holidays are over. They plan for one of the spouses to move out after New Year's so they can spend one last Christmas together as a family. That's especially the case when there are children or when the couple traditionally participates in big family gatherings during the holidays.
Parents convince each other that it's right to give the kids one more holiday season with the family still together, and there's nothing wrong with wanting the children to have that.
Still, there will always be those in the middle of divorce proceedings that want them to be finalized by Dec. 31, especially when they're trying to file their 2015 taxes as a single person.
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Do you have questions about the timing of your divorce? To discuss your situation with a Pennsylvania no fault divorce attorney, contact our office. We'd be glad to answer your questions in a free case evaluation
