More Divorces Than Usual Happening During This Holiday Season

Divorce courts generally quiet down over the holidays before a boom early in the new year. This year, however, is shaping up to be the busiest holiday season ever for many divorce lawyers and courts across the country.

Most legal experts attribute this to the ongoing stress and anxiety placed on relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic this year.

Multiple sources have conducted studies indicating an increase in divorce cases, or interest in filing for divorce. One survey from Legal Templates (a database providing legal documents) found a 34 percent increase in sales of divorce paperwork from the same period last year. An SEO company saw sales for “filing for divorce” increase by 22 percent, and “file for divorce online” increase by nearly 96 percent.

Meanwhile, divorce lawyers across the nation report an increase in the cases they’re processing, which is something that typically doesn’t happen during the holidays.

Pandemic was expected to lead to an increase in divorce

Early on in the pandemic, many experts predicted there would be a significant uptick in divorce filings after years of decreased numbers due to pandemic restrictions keeping people in close quarters for longer stretches of time. For couples that already had strained relationships, it would be enough for them to “take the plunge” and divorce. But even for couples who had relatively healthy relationships, the strain of spending too much time around each other can be too much to handle.

This is a phenomenon that’s expected to continue until most pandemic restrictions are alleviated. And while there is a vaccine that’s just beginning to be disseminated to the public, it will be some time before enough people have had it that those restrictions can be withdrawn.

For more information about how you can file for divorce during the pandemic, contact an experienced Long Island family lawyer at Bryan L. Salamone & Associates.