Miami Divorce Law Blog

A recent report released by the National Center for Family and Marriage states that one in every four divorces filed is between couples over the age of 50. That number is more than double the 1990 statistics concerning divorce. An AARP study also shows that the majority of those divorces are instigated by women. The numbers indicate there may be a growing expiration date on marriage for many couples.

In the past, couples often divorced because of money problems or infidelity. Although that certainly remains true, the reasons have changed for a significant number of couples as the baby boomer era has progressed.

The United States Senate last week approved legislation that would recognize domestic violence in the LGBT community and apply the same rules to it as those governing domestic abuse among traditional couples. The legislation is a step toward bolstering the protections of victims of domestic violence and preventing it from happening.

Named the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act, the bill is an update to the initial law first passed in 1994. It was approved on a 10-8 party line vote. Domestic violence experts note that the bill will set aside grant money to fund programs supporting victims of sexual assault crimes, and it will provide better training to police and other officials to help them identify potential high-risk offenders.

Divorce commentators are increasingly pointing to one aspect of marital dissolution in Florida and across the country that is often quite different for separating spouses these days than it was formerly.

Namely, that is this: Until the recent and lingering recession, couples often argued over the specific property division question of who would get to keep title to the home. In the past couple years, though, the argument has increasingly shifted to the question of who will continue to be responsible for paying down the mortgage.

In years past, research strongly indicated that women who divorced usually suffered financial crisis, while the man's income increased. Times are changing. In a recent report released by Pew Research, a Washington, D.C., organization that has a pulse on changing social issues, divorced women are not suffering the financial setbacks or stigma with which they were once branded.

It was not that long ago that most women were housekeepers, with many of them being flatly dependent on their husbands, who typically brought in the only income for a family. Today, a divorce is easier than ever to get, society doesn't make a big deal of it and, with successful careers on the rise for women, many prefer to be single.