Foreign Law Proposes Marriage Licenses Renewals to Prevent Divorces

Last year, it was widely recently reported that lawmakers in Mexico were considering legislation that would have created temporary marriage licenses as a solution to the rising number of divorces in the country. According to a Reuters report, statistics showed that in Mexico most divorce actions commenced within the first two years of marriage. In the nation’s capital, Mexico City, nearly one is two marriages ended in divorce.

The idea behind the law was that the temporary marriage licenses would be granted for a period of at least two years. At the end of this trial period, the couple could either renew the license for any desired time period or they could just let the marriage expire. The law would have included provisions for how would happen to the property and children should the couple decide not to renew the license.

An issue that comes up with marriage dissolution in Mexico is the cost associated with the legal proceeding. The Mexico City Assemblyman who introduced the bill estimated that ending a marriage in Mexico costs approximately $3,500. In a country where the median household income is approximately $12,000, a divorce that costs almost one third of what a person makes in a single year is cost prohibitive. Therefore, instead of going through a costly divorce, couples often just go their separate ways, starting new families, without going through the legal process to make it official. This is a real issue for Mexican authorities because they are not capable of determining familial relationships.

In the United States, a divorce can be obtained for $3,500 in some cases. The median household income in America is approximately $53,000. Therefore, relative to countries such as Mexico, divorces in the United States can be quite cost-effective. Today, due to New York’s passage of No-Fault Divorce, ending a marriage is not necessarily as expensive as many think.

Bryan L. Salamone & Associates, P.C., Long Island’s largest divorce and family law firm, offers very competitive pricing for our clients. For select cases, we offer retainers as low as $3,450 and hourly rates as low as $345. Call us today at 1.631.479.3839 for a free consultation.