As the recession bites, families and individuals are stress coming under high levels of stress and there is a corersponding increase in social problems including domestic violence, alcoholism and unemployment. Billy Joel’s lyric “they started to fight when the money got tight” is unfortunately now very evident.
During a recession, family relationships can be affected very seriously.
Relate (Relationship Advice Service) has seen a demand for its Counselling services increase significantly in the past.
Cash strapped couples are now being forced to apply to the Legal Aid Board for Legal Aid to complete their Applications for Divorce/Separation. The Legal Aid Board are seeing an increase in their services resulting in lengthy waiting lists in Law Centres across the country.
Many parties who are not in a position to obtain Legal Aid are taking the “DIY approach” and the owners of DIY Divorce Ireland say there has been an increase in people applying to carry out their own Divorces over the past months.
Recession worries have also increased calls to one parent family help lines as borne out by One Family Agency which is an action group for one parent families.
Post Graduate Student Roisin O’Shea from Waterford carried out an analysis of the operation of the system of Judicial Separation and Divorce in the Family Law Courts in Ireland in 2008 and 2009. Roisin O’Shea indicated that her research saw a pattern emerging as a result of the dramatic change in the economy of couples seeking to separate or divorce. Her research revealed that most couples wanting to split with young children have negative equity of up to €100,000.00 on their family homes and personal debts of up to €30,000.00 each. The Family Court Judges are being asked to apportion the debt rather than the assets according to Roisin.
At a Roundhall Family Law Conference held in Dublin in December 2008, Mr Gerard Durcan SC a pre-eminent Family Law Counsel told the annual Roundhall Family Law Conference that “everything is worth less”. Last July 2008 people started turning up in Family Law Courts with horror stories he said. According to Mr Durcan “we may have to face up to the fact that while people might be able to settle their personal lives, they may not be able to settle their business and professional lives. Historically there had been three ways of ensuring “proper provision” for both Spouses following Separation or Divorce – borrowing from a Bank, sale of property, division of proceeds, transfers of property. We are now in a position where it is difficult to get money from Banks, properties are not selling and it is impossible to implement matrimonial settlements. Increasingly there are now Applications to Court to vary Settlements made in the past, to vary Maintenance Orders and to defer lump sum payments.
Many couples are now putting Divorce off altogether because they can’t afford it. On the other hand some wealthier ones are actually seizing on the economy and getting divorced knowing that they’ll have less to hand over to the other Spouse.
Family Law Solicitors are seeing an increase in Applications to the Court to modify maintenance payments. Divorce/Separation Applications are more contentious as assets dwindle. There is a difficulty in division of proceeds and transfers of properties.
The impact of recession on Family Law is across all jurisdictions.
Legal Practitioners from Canada and the United States of America convened a Family Law Conference to analyse Divorce and recession in Chicago, in October 2009. In a recent survey of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, 39% of the nation’s top Divorce Attorneys cited an increase in requests for smaller child support payments. Additionally 42% of the members reported a rise in the number of changes made to alimony payments. With job losses becoming so widespread, the members of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers have noticed that fewer people are getting divorced because of the economy.
Existing matrimonial cases have become more problematic as determining the value of a home or business is not an easy task. Fewer Divorces are being issued and the Divorces which are issued are more complicated because they are more difficult to settle. What is happening in the United States is also happening within this jurisdiction and the Irish Family Lawyers are seeing similar trends here in Divorce/Separation cases.
