High divorce costs affect people of all backgrounds, income brackets

The U.S. economy has not fully recovered from the effects of the 2008 financial crisis, and people are struggling to pay their bills across the country. This makes a divorce all the more painful for some couples, as they struggle to finance the end of their marriage.

According to the Middletown Journal, the weak economy is putting stress on couples who are looking to end their marriage in Middletown County, Ohio, as the local rate has dropped. Experts have said that this is due to a lack of financial security and growing divorce costs.

"The demand still is out there, just a lot of people don’t have the money," a Middletown divorce attorney told the news source. "In a time when people have less money, it costs more to get it done."

This type of cost constraint has led many people to seek alternative methods for ending their marriage, as options like divorce mediation can help a couple split without requiring them to go through the court system.

The Middletown Journal reported that many of the fees associated with filing for a divorce through the court system have risen, and a decrease in the budgets for the legal system has only exacerbated the situation.

"The state is cutting back on everything with the budget,” the local lawyer told the news source. "Court costs, which used to be relatively modest 10, 15 years ago, are now several hundred dollars depending upon how much litigation goes on. When I started out, it was a single filing fee, and that covered everything. Now it’s like going to a grocery store. You’ve got your initial filing fee, but most courts now charge for every single thing that you file. Every procedure that’s used adds onto the court costs."

An article in the Huffington Post noted that the high divorce costs that many couples are hit with, or have heard about through acquaintances, have led them to pursue an alternative method or scrap the split altogether.

"For people of moderate means, the economy has had a big impact. It is very expensive to get divorced," an attorney from New York told the news source.

Divorce mediation is a cheaper method for obtaining a split, as it helps to expedite the process, which in turn lowers the attorney fees because of a shorter period for when this individual needs to get paid.

The article in the Post cited a new study published in the B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy, which showed that as unemployment rises, the divorce rate goes down. While an objective bystander would see a drop in the number of marriages that come to an end as a good thing, it illustrates a less optimistic situation.

The New York attorney noted that this type of high cost for a divorce causes people to "cling to an unhappy marriage because they can't afford to leave."

A divorce mediator can not only help a couple exit their marriage in quicker fashion, which helps to limit the costs and time that one has to spend with an ex, but they also can limit the contentious nature of a split.

Because a mediator operates behind closed doors, and outside of the often-adversarial courtroom, some of the stress and anxiety that occurs when couples are put in front of a judge is removed.

Financial issues should not keep someone in an unhealthy marriage, according to the article, but a divorce through the courts is something that this person may want to avoid. 

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