Divorce rates decrease along with economy | Bellevue divorce attorney

Divorce filings in Sacramento County, California have decreased from 2007 to 2008 and further in the beginning of 2009.  Sacramento divorce attorney Hal Bartholomew, president-elect of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers' Northern California chapter says that "Most divorce lawyers across the country are seeing a drop in new-client calls."

The financial crisis has caused troubled couples to think twice about going through with a divorce or find ways to reduce the costs such as trying to go without hiring a divorce attorney, using mediation instead of litigating through the courts.  In some situations, couples are getting divorced but staying in the same house.  Many people simply can't afford to divorce in the current economic climate. The process itself can be expensive and combined with decreased home values and loss of equity, huge stock market losses, and credit card debt have given rise to a need for great creativity in splitting the finances.

Often now there is no more equity in the house and there's less money in the 401(k) so one option is to defer the sale of the house to a later date and as as result, there are more cases where the divorcing parties remain at the same address.

Another effect of the bad economy is that people are trying to work things out and so the demand for counselors is way up.  It's definitely cheaper to go to counseling than to a divorce attorney.

The Bellevue divorce attorney at Andrew Kim Law Firm provides information to men and women about the divorce process so they can make an informed decision about whether to seek marriage counseling, wait it out, or proceed forward with filing for a divorce.  For a free initial consultation, call us at 1-800-636-3676.

Divorce in a recession | Bellevue divorce attorney

Breaking up in a down real estate market is hard to do.  In most divorce cases, the house is the largest asset to be split between husband and wife and typically, one party relied on the share of the equity in the home awarded as part of the property division to get a fresh start in life.  Now, in the current market, you're lucky if you have any equity in the home.

The recession and bad real estate market has claimed another victim:  those going through a divorce.  We used to fight about who gets to keep the house and now we fight about who gets stuck with the dead cow.  One side effect of the decline in real estate, is that couples are deciding to stay together longer or even make arrangements to live in the same household after divorce sharing the expenses because neither can afford maintain the house on their own.  The husband may live on one floor and the wife on the other not unlike the movie "War of the Roses" where the house is divided by a big white line.  The family home has become a toxic asset.


The flip side of this where one spouse has the financial means to keep the house.  For example:

Josh Kaufman and his wife bought a 6,500-square-foot house outside Cleveland on 5-½ acres that was worth $1.5 million at the market's height.  When they divorced in June, Kaufman knew his wife could not afford to carry the home. The longer the divorce process continued, the more the house depreciated. By the time he assumed the house, its appraised value was half what the couple had put into it; he did not pay her anything for her share.  "From a negotiating standpoint we knew that she couldn't afford to stay in it," Kaufman said. "It appeared as an opportunity to turn the negative situation around. There was no emotion involved. It was a business decision on what made most financial sense. It wasn't an attempt to take advantage of someone."  Still, his lawyer, Andrew Zashin, said, "He bought this house at a bargain-basement price."

Whether the above scenario applies to you or not, you should consult with an experienced Bellevue, Seattle, Washington divorce attorney to provide you with the information you need to make a well informed decision. 

Call the Andrew Kim Law Firm at (425) 289-1990 for a free initial consultation.