January is Divorce Month
The New Year can be a good time to reconsider a bad relationship. According to Psychology Today, this is why January is often called divorce month—there are more divorces filed nationwide in January than in any other month. “Some couples who’ve been planning to break up choose to avoid disrupting their families during the holidays. Others may be hoping that their situation or their partner’s behaviors will change, and when nothing shifts, they opt for dissolution,” reports Psychology Today.
According to the Huffington Post, some divorce scholars have attempted to determine an exact “D-Day,” the day on which more divorces happen than any other reason. One consultant told the Huffington Post that while people begin looking for information well before the holidays, “they can’t do much until the attorney are back in the office. January 12–16 seems to be the magic week for filings.”
Waiting until after the holidays to initiate proceedings is more common for families that have children. This, of course, is because couples that are anticipating divorce opt to stave it off in order to give “the kids one last happy holiday as in intact family. By January, if it’s still not working, they know it’s time to move on,” according to the Huffington Post. Divorce can be extremely difficult if you have children, regardless of how long you wait, according to Psychology Today. No matter when you break the news, whether you wait until after the New Year or not, “if you have children, you need to break the news to them gently and slowly.”
Another reason people commonly wait to file for divorce until after the New Year is for tax purposes. A person’s marital status as of December 31 of that year determines whether the person can file taxes jointly or not. Couples whose taxes are significantly less when filing jointly will often wait until after the New Year in order to file one last joint return.
If you are considering divorce, knowing what time of year is best to file is only one of the crucial decisions you’ll make. The importance of a legal professional can’t be overstated. Contact The Law Offices of Douglas B. Warlick & Associates today.
