A recent study showed that couples who began their lives together by co-habiting before marriage had a higher rate of divorce than those who waited until the knot was tied. (The Downside of Cohabiting Before Marriage-nytimes.com)
Considering that 50% of all marriages already end in divorce, it seems counter-intuitive that having a “test-run” would cause even more break-ups.
Most “20-somethings” think it makes sense to live together before taking the plunge. But the evidence is different. It seems… More

There is an important article in the July 9, 2011 issue of the Wall Street Journal: “The Divorce Generation”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303544604576430341393583056.html?KEYWORDS=the+divorce+generation 

  The article reveals the problems of the  adult children of divorced parents and their fear that they will follow in same miserable footsteps. Divorce is far more devastating on these people than we thought. They lived through the trauma of fights over custody, parenting time,  and unpaid child support. Being shuttled back and forth every few days or worse, rarely seeing the… More

On a recent Sunday, My wife and I were seated near the back of our local church. Since it was Spring break, the church wasn’t crowded. Across the aisle were two young couples, each with one child, a boy and a girl, and both about two years old.

As the service wore on, the little girl started roaming near the floor to ceiling window at the side of the church, examining the glass, the floor, and the backs of the… More

The March 2011 issue of the Michigan Family Law Journal features an article by Carole Chiamp, a Detroit mediator and attorney, that compares the outcomes of 400 divorce cases; half of which were mediatied and the other half litigated.

There are several useful conclusions for you to take from the article, especially if you’re considering mediation but believe that taking a hard position in a contested court fight will better  protect your rights and get you more.

First, there was… More