The Austin Lafferty Solicitors & Estate Agents Blog

A recent study has looked at the impact the availability of the internet has had on marriage rates, and claims that as well as facilitating the search for products to buy such as books and games, the internet has also facilitated the search for a prospective partner.

The inevitable first request on the first consultation from a client who has separated from their spouse is,’ I want a divorce’. ‘My husband or wife has left me and I need a divorce’. My response is normally that, apart from the psychological smug satisfaction and feeling of warmth a divorce may bring, it may not be needed and indeed could be an expensive, unnecessary form of therapy . But is that really what they are asking for?

More Australians are divorcing after twenty years or more of marriage, according to new data released by the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS).

The Marriage Foundation think-tank has produced a report revealing that second marriages are more stable than first marriages, challenging the widely held belief that couples who remarry are doomed to repeat the mistakes from their first marriage.

Divorce can have a detrimental effect on a woman’s retirement savings and result in a lack of financial security in retirement, according to recent research from the Phoenix Group.

Around 59% of divorce attorneys in America have seen an increase in the number of cases using evidence taken from dating websites during the past three years, according to a recent survey of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML).

A recent study from America has uncovered a link between a couple’s sleep pattern and the stability of their relationship.

A survey of counseling professionals from YourTango.com has offered some insights into why marriages fail. It found that the leading cause of divorce was communication problems, followed by sexual infidelity and "not spending enough time together/not mutually prioritising the marriage."

A recent study from Norway has found that couples who share household chores are more likely to get divorced, reports the Telegraph.

According to recent data from the Irish Central Statistics Office, the share of the population aged 15 and over who were single fell from 43.1% in 2006 to 41.7% (1,505,035 people) in 2011. The married population increased by 9.2% between 2006 and 2011, growing from 1,565,016 to 1,708,604.

A recent study from Portugal has found that men and women choose to separate or get divorced for different reasons, reports the Portugal News.

Scotland's Chief Statistician has recently published the results of a survey into the composition of households across Scotland.

As part of the survey, just under 13,000 adults were selected to take part in a 'random adult' interview. Around 52% of these adults were female and 48% were male. Those aged 16-24 represented 15% of adults. Those aged 45 to 59 made up a quarter (25%) of all adults, while those 75 or over represented just under one-tenth (9%) of adults.

Of these random adults, the survey found that:

Divorce and relationship breakdown is leading 25 people to seek help with unmanageable debt each day, according to recent figures from debt charity the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS).

A total of 9,099 people counselled by CCCS during 2011 cited divorce or separation as the main cause of their debt problem, with women outnumbering men two-to-one.

Relationship breakdown costs the UK an estimated £44bn a year and divorce and separation ranks as the fourth largest cause of problem debt among CCCS clients, behind unemployment, reduced income and budgeting problems, with two thirds (66%) of those affected being women.

A researcher at Kansas State University has carried out a study into whether the type of relationship a woman has with her ex-partner is a factor in how the couple shares custody of children.

Assistant professor Mindy Markham's study of 20 divorced or separated mothers sharing physical custody of their children with their former partners found there were three main patterns of co-parenting -- continuously contentious, always amicable and bad to better.

Nine mothers had continuously contentious co-parenting relationships with their ex-partners from the time of separation to the present.

Four mothers in the study had amicable co-parenting relationships, where they reported always getting along with their ex-partners from separation to the present.

Seven of the mothers in the study had bad-to-better co-parenting relationships, where co-parenting was contentious at the time of separation, but greatly improved over time.

Communication with the ex-partner also played a role in the co-parenting relationship. In the always amicable and bad-to-better relationships, mothers were able to communicate well with ex-partners. These mothers said this made discussing differences in parenting styles easier.

But for women in continuously contentious relationships, lack of communication was a big issue, Markham said. These mothers limited direct in-person or phone communication with their ex, preferring alternative methods like texting or email. They also avoided seeing their ex in person when it came time to exchange children by having them picked up at day care or school.

Markham said she was surprised by the level of animosity that accompanies shared custody, at least from some mothers' perceptions.

"Nearly half of the mothers in this study continue to have conflicted relationships with their ex-partners, and conversations with these women negate the notion that shared physical custody ensures cooperative, less conflicted relationships," she said. "This study can be important for helping professionals recognize that shared physical custody is not a panacea for postdivorce problems -- and that in some cases it exacerbates them."

The Scottish Registrar General has published figures revealing key demographic trends across Scotland.

The figures show that in mid-2011, Scotland's population reached 5,254,800 – its highest ever level.

There were 29,135 marriages in Scotland in 2011. This includes 6,829 marriages (23%) where neither the bride nor groom lived in Scotland, but does not include people living in Scotland who marry elsewhere.

The average age at which people marry for the first time has increased by around two years in the last ten years, to 32.6 years for men and 30.9 years for women.

Just over half of all marriages (52%) were civil ceremonies, carried out by a registrar – compared with just under one-third (31%) in 1971. Just over half of these civil ceremonies took place in registration offices, with the rest taking place in approved places.

Most religious marriages were carried out by Church of Scotland ministers (5,557), with clergy from the Roman Catholic Church carrying out 1,729 marriages. Celebrants from the Humanist Society of Scotland, authorised to carry out marriages since 2005, officiated at 2,486 marriages, compared with 2,092 in 2010.

In 2011, there were 9,862 divorces and 44 civil partnerships were dissolved (legally ended) in Scotland.

Joint research led by the Australian Institute of Family Studies has found that equivalised household income after divorce declined for women but not for men.

The research found that some women were able to recover their income after six years through re-partnering, increased labour force participation, and an increased proportion of income coming from government benefits.

However, Australian Institute of Family Studies Director, Professor Alan Hayes said this is not the case for divorced women with dependent children.

“Divorced women with dependent children found it difficult to recover their income post-divorce. We know from other research that sole mothers with dependent children experienced difficulties combining paid work and family responsibilities with less support,” he said.

“The study also found that divorced men and women had a lower household income prior to separation than those who remained married and this has a bearing on their financial position in six years.

“While divorced men and women had lower assets before they separated than those who remained married, the gap appeared to widen at least in the first six years after divorce.

“There is some evidence that the effect of divorce on assets lasts into older age and this negatively impacts on income in later life. But the long term effects of divorce are largely offset by re-partnering.”

A woman in Northamptonshire has set herself up as an 'animal registrar', offering an animal 'wedding' service to devoted pet owners, reports the Daily Mail.

The basic service costs £150 a time, but according to Ann Clark, owners have been prepared to spend to £20,000 to provide their four legged friends with extras including a photographer and chauffeur driven cars.

Dogs and cats are the most common pets Ms Clark sees, although she recently 'married' a pair of rabbits. Owners can also opt for a same-sex 'civil ceremony' for their pets, instead of the more traditional wedding service.

Not all pets adjust well to married life however, with one owner phoning up Ms Clark to inform her that a recently wedded pair had now grown apart.

'That has been our only divorce,' commented Ms Clark.

A woman in India has applied to the family court to divorce her husband because he hadn't updated his Facebook status to show that he was married, reports the Daily Mail.

In the run up to Father's Day in June, the US Census Bureau has published a series of facts about the estimated 70.1 million fathers in America.

The data reveals that there were 24.7 million fathers who were part of married-couple families with children younger than 18 in 2011.

It also reveals that there were 1.7 million single fathers, and around 15% or all single parents in America were men. Around 45% of these single fathers were divorced, 31% were never married, 19% were separated, and 5% were widowed.

Custodial fathers in 2009 were due $3.5 billion in child support, but received only $1.9 billion. In contrast, custodial mothers received $19.5 billion of the $31.7 billion in support that was due. Around 34% of custodial fathers received all child support that was due in 2009, not significantly different from the corresponding percentage for custodial mothers, 42%.