January and the “D Word”!

We are just about halfway through January and already there has been a plethora of stories and
articles in the news about divorce. This started with the announcement that (apparently) 13 people
completed an online divorce petition on Christmas Day, and last week we had the possibility of
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s divorce becoming the biggest in history – although considering Bezos is
said to be the world’s wealthiest man worth $137 billion this is perhaps not surprising.

Along the way we have also had the perennial articles about “divorce week” and “divorce day”.
Divorce Day is said to be the first working Monday after Christmas and New Year. The reasoning
being that people in unhappy marriages have got fed up with each other over the festive period, let
the dust settle in the early days of January then call their divorce lawyer to start the process going.

I’ve often felt that there is a bit of a myth surrounding divorce week – January is always a very busy
time of year for me with new enquiries, but no busier than (say) the first week in September after
children go back to school. I’ve read a number of articles suggesting that if marriages do break down
irretrievably (and it is a sad reality that about 40% of them do), then the chances are that these tend
to be spread pretty evenly throughout the year.

Difficulties in relationships can be intensified over the Christmas period for obvious reasons, but we
do not generally live our lives as if we are in a soap opera (although maybe those 13 people who
filed for a divorce on Christmas Day have watched too many episodes of EastEnders). The best
advice I can give to anyone thinking about embarking on divorce is to be sure of what you want to
do – look both ways before crossing the road. When you are ready to go ahead then instruct the
best lawyer that you can realistically afford. At Greens, we will do our very best to represent you and
look after your best interests – that can be at any time of the year, not just in January.

Please contact me on 0121 233 2042 if you wanted to have a no-obligation chat about your options
and we can then discuss what is best for you going forward. We offer a very competitive pricing
structure for divorces.

William Ham

Head of Family Department

Worcester