These days, it’s easier than ever to file for divorce. You can find the forms online, fill them out yourself, and, if you follow the proper procedure, end your marriage. This do-it-yourself approach works like gangbusters in some situations, but not in others. At some point in the process, you need to ask yourself: Should I hire a divorce attorney?

Should You Hire A Divorce Lawyer?

You have a lot of choices to make during this time, and deciding whether or not to hire a divorce lawyer is a big one.

By this stage, you’ve probably asked yourself many questions, like why are you staying married? Can you save your marriage? If divorce is truly the best option? It’s important to contemplate these topics.

The question of whether or not to hire a divorce attorney generally comes up after the decision has already been made to divorce or separate. Maybe you filed for divorce, maybe it was your spouse, or perhaps it was a mutual decision.

The DIY approach works great in many cases. That’s part of why it’s become so popular. But it also tends to be a better fit in straightforward situations. This usually means shorter marriages without children, with little shared property, and where you agree on everything.

Related Reading: Pro Se Divorce: What Is DIY Divorce? 

What Factors Complicate Divorce?

It is still possible to handle more complicated divorces on your own. But remember, the more complex things become, the more potential hazards you face. Ending a marriage affects custody, your finances, and much more.

The more complicated your situation, the more you’re likely to benefit when you hire a divorce lawyer. While you can handle the details of your split yourself, having representation benefits you in many areas.

Division Of Property & Assets

The more assets you have, the more complex the division of property becomes. This includes homes, cars, bank accounts, and even retirement benefits. Oregon is an equitable distribution state. That means the courts view property as belonging to the spouse who earned it. However, that doesn’t mean the court divides everything along those lines.

They aim for each spouse to emerge on relatively even financial footing.

Ideally, courts want both parties to enjoy the standard of living they had while married. Spouses can work together to divide assets. However, the more conflict you have, the more problems usually arise. You may want to hire a divorce lawyer to help ensure the agreement is fair and balanced.

Related Reading: How Are Businesses Divided During Divorce? Can You Protect It?

Child Custody

Having children complicates divorce proceedings in many cases. Custody battles often grow heated and contentious. Again, it is possible to work out a parenting plan between you and your spouse. But in these situations, things get hectic and tangled in no time.

Having representation helps in many ways, and this may influence your decision to hire a divorce lawyer or not.

In child custody cases, the court’s overriding mandate is to do what’s in the child’s best interest.

Enlisting an attorney experienced in his area often proves hugely beneficial. Not only does having a third party help calm down raging emotions, but a professional helps develop a strategy to protect your rights as a parent.

Related Reading: How Legal Marijuana Impacts Child Custody

Child Support

When you have children, child support usually comes into play. How this affects you generally has a lot to do with the custody situation. In general, the parent with the most overnights receives the payments from the other.

There’s a general formula for determining child support that accounts for need, income, and many other factors.

These payments cover the costs of caring for the child in question, both regular expenses and also unexpected costs. This includes but isn’t limited to:

• • Food.
  • Clothing.
  • Shelter.
  • Education.
  • Medical care.
  • Any other necessities.

Related Reading: Fathers’ Rights and Child Custody

Spousal Support

While child support has a formula, spousal support is less systematic. When determining whether or not to award spousal maintenance, the court weighs many elements. They consider, among other factors:

• • Need.
  • Age.
  • The length of the marriage.
  • Any continuing health concerns.
  • Future employment opportunities and earning potential.

The court doesn’t award spousal support in every case, and it can continue indefinitely or only last for a limited time. Ideally, an attorney with experience will prevent you from agreeing to terms you can afford, or ensure you get enough to meet your financial needs.

Related Reading: The Cost of Divorce: What You Need to Know

Divorce Settlement

The DIY approach may result in a quicker, cheaper split than if you hire a divorce lawyer. That said, it may also lead to unexpected issues in the future.

As we’ve said, the division of property, child custody arrangements, spousal support, child support, and other areas get complicated. They also have a huge financial impact on your life moving forward.

Divorce settlements are complex legal documents. It’s all too easy to sign on the dotted line and not truly understand what it says.

A judge won’t generally approve a divorce settlement that skews too drastically in favor of one spouse or the other. That doesn’t mean it’s entirely fair or as equitable as it could be.

Once the court issues a divorce decree, they’re difficult, not to mention expensive, to modify. If you hire a divorce lawyer, they can help head off potential disasters ahead of time.

If you do go the DIY route, consider consulting an attorney even if you don’t hire a divorce lawyer for the entire case. They can explain your rights, point you in the right direction, and make sure you know exactly what you’re agreeing to before you sign.

Related Reading: Divorce FAQs

How Do I Know When to Hire A Divorce Attorney?

Besides the factors listed above, there are many additional questions to ask yourself when deciding whether or not to hire a divorce attorney. Answering these smaller questions often helps you decide on the big one.

This is by no means an exhaustive list and it certainly doesn’t cover every scenario. However, by the end, you’ll hopefully have a better idea of your needs.

Are You Ready to Divorce?

Infidelity, abuse, financial betrayal, and more. Marriages end for many reasons, but not all of them are dramatic. Often relationships just don’t work out or people drift apart over time. You may roll your eyes and say, “Duh,” at this statement, but you need to consider whether your marriage is truly over and if you’re ready to walk away.

The answer to this question is different for everyone, and though it may sound obvious, it’s an important one to ask.

Related Reading: 4 Divorce Tips and Strategies

Does Your Spouse Have a Divorce Lawyer?

Did your spouse already hire a divorce lawyer? If so, it’s most often in your best interests to hire one of your own. At least do the legwork and explore your options.

We commonly compare representing yourself against an experienced attorney to a beer league softball player getting into the batter’s box against an MLB pitcher. Sure, they’re technically the same game, but not really. It usually puts you at a serious disadvantage.

Related Reading: Preparing for Your Initial Consultation With a Divorce Lawyer

Do You Understand the Legal Paperwork?

You have numerous places where you can download forms, fill them out, and file them yourself. But do you truly know what you’re signing? Legal language and paperwork are notoriously complex and specific.

If you make a mistake it can damage the outcome or even invalidate the entire process.

In many cases, it’s worth the expense to hire a divorce lawyer to guide you through the ins and outs. Or at least to examine the paperwork before you finalize things. That alone often saves people money and headaches.

Related Reading: How to Divorce in Oregon: Forms and Filing

Is Your Divorce High-Conflict?

Most people don’t end a marriage because everything is great. Divorce can be an emotional and tumultuous experience full of bitterness, resentment, and conflict.

People don’t always think straight or consider the consequences of their actions. A divorce lawyer provides a steady hand and rational opinion in chaotic times and keeps you from making rash decisions based on anger.

Related Reading: Is January Really Divorce Month?

Can You And Your Ex Communicate?

One common side effect of conflict in divorce is it often becomes difficult to communicate. If you can’t see or speak to your spouse without fighting, how can you effectively negotiate the terms of your divorce?

Again, experienced representation helps keep situations calm and serves as a buffer or go-between for warring exes who can’t be in the same room.

Related Reading: How Adultery Really Affects Divorce

Do You Know What You’re Entitled To?

Do you know what you’re legally entitled to? Every situation is different, but you have rights to a portion of shared assets. When you have kids, you also have parental rights.

If your spouse has a pension or other retirement account, guess what? You may have a legal claim to a share of that in the settlement.

Divorce comes with a list of rules, regulations, and laws. Many of them are obvious and well-known, but others aren’t. People often give up or miss valuable items because they don’t know their true worth. (For example, did you know airline miles are sometimes divisible?)

If you hire a divorce attorney, they clue you into things you didn’t know existed and keep you from leaving assets on the table.

Related Reading: Financial Mistakes During Divorce

Is Your Divorce Complex?

Do you own multiple homes, keep a fleet of expensive cars, or have multiple children of various ages? While it is possible (again, there’s that word) for you and your ex to hammer out a divorce settlement on your own, the more factors you have to consider, the trickier it becomes and the more potential pitfalls you face.

It’s all too easy to make costly mistakes. Once the documents are signed, it’s a pricey slog to change them. So it’s best, not to mention easier, to do things right the first time.

Related Reading: Legal Marijuana and Child Custody

Is That Divorce Settlement Fair?

As we’ve said, divorce has a major impact on your financial future. It’s important to handle your business so you don’t kick off this new phase of your life in the hole. You can’t just agree to a proposed settlement to be done with the process faster.

What you need is to be certain a settlement is fair and gives you what you need. When you hire a divorce lawyer, they ensure an agreement includes what it should, that it’s the best you’ll get, and whether or not it’s fair.

Related Reading: What’s the Average Cost of Divorce in Oregon?

Can Both Spouses Use The Same Divorce Lawyer?

This question comes up more than you might think. The short answer is: no, you can’t both use the same divorce lawyer.

You’re not legally required to have counsel to divorce, but if you do, you and your spouse each need your own.

Ethical rules—and in most cases, state laws—prohibit attorneys from representing clients with competing interests. And few situations so clearly present a conflict of interest as working for both sides in a divorce.

Even seemingly innocuous questions have different answers for each party. If you ask a question, the response may be different than if your spouse asks the same one, and it’s an attorney’s job to make the language in any documents benefit their client.

No matter what decision you ultimately make, just remember that ending a marriage impacts every facet of your life. With that in mind, it’s almost always in your best interest to hire a divorce lawyer. It seems and often is expensive. No one denies that. However, in most situations, experienced representation only benefits you and your case.

Related Reading: How Is Property Divided In Divorce In Oregon?

The common refrain is that the divorce rate in the United States hovers around the 50% mark. Except it doesn’t, and never has. The hows and whys of that, however, are a topic of conversation for another time.

In reality, the divorce rate is lower than in years and has been on a steady if gradual decline. An interesting exercise is to look at divorce by generation and investigate the changing views.

How Attitudes About Divorce Have Changed Over Generations

There are currently six living generations of Americans.

Attitudes towards families and marriage form a definitive piece of each, and examining them provides some insight. There are, of course, exceptions to every rule, and we’ll be looking at these in broad strokes.

Not every member of every generation fits each mold exactly. However, looking at the larger trends of the divorce rate by generation lets us see how prevailing norms evolve.

Related Reading: 8 Ways to Prepare for Divorce

GI Generation

Also widely called the “Greatest Generation,” these are people born from 1901-1926. They experienced two World Wars firsthand, as well as the Great Depression.

One of the defining characteristics of this era is a strong sense of duty, civic responsibility, and right and wrong.

This black-and-white sense of the world extends to how the GI Generation looks at divorce. They take the “‘til death do us part” segment of the wedding vows very seriously. Marriage is a commitment, for life.

Things like divorce or having children out of wedlock are simply not acceptable. Divorce carries a stain and stigma. Because of these dominant cultural and societal attitudes, fewer people from this age group stray from that path.

Related Reading: How Political Differences Can Cause Divorce

Mature Silents

Born between 1927 and 1945, the generation known as the Mature Silents, or Silent Generation, carry similar touchstones of the previous age group.

Many fought in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, but they also experienced the post-World War II economic boom. Though there were the first rumblings of the Civil Rights movement and feminism, it was generally a time of great conformity.

This conformity also extended to how we look at divorce by generation in this instance. In general, the husband worked, primarily at one job for one employer his entire career, while the wife stayed home with the kids. Marriage is, again, usually for life, and things like divorce and having children outside of marriage are simply not acceptable.

Related Reading: Ways to Save Money During Divorce

Baby Boomers

Born just after World War II, in the years 1946-1965, the Baby Boomers are the generation that embraced rock and roll, social change, credit cards, and television. With 77 million people, it’s also one of the largest single generations in history.

Widely regarded as self-centered, this age group, also nicknamed the “Me Generation,” pushed against traditional social constructs and boundaries.

Their attitudes toward divorce, marriage, and families reflect this changing tide.

When breaking down divorce by generation, this is where the biggest shifts occur. In large part, this is due to the sheer size of this demographic. There’s a lot of them, so they carry a lot of weight.

Women of this generation entered the workplace in previously unheard-of numbers. This created more dual-income households. But it’s also the first era where mothers weren’t as pervasive in a child’s life as before.

For the first time, divorce became more widely accepted. Because of an increased emphasis on individuality, divorce was viewed as an acceptable way to deal with an unhappy marriage.

You were no longer expected to stick it out through irreconcilable differences. This era also began the age of no-fault divorce, where you can end a marriage simply because you want to, without providing cause.

Even as the Baby Boomers continue to age, they divorce more than any other age group. Between 1990 and 2012, the divorce rate for 55 to 64-year-olds more than doubled. For the 65-and-older crowd, that number more than tripled.

Related Reading: Divorce or Legal Separation?

Generation X

Since Baby Boomers had fewer children than their parents, Generation X, those born between 1965 and 1980, is smaller than its predecessor.

More cynical about society and authority, they have an eye on individuality and are likely to change careers multiple times over their lives. They’re also unique in numerous ways when we look at divorce by generation.

As Baby Boomers focused on career advancement, both parents were likely to work. Since divorce became commonplace, Generation X was the first era where having divorced parents was normal. It wasn’t strange or bad; it was just a common fact of life.

For the most part, Generation X responded to this by staying married. More people also put off marrying or decide not to marry at all. But once they say “I do,” GenXers remain married at higher rates than the preceding generation.

Roughly 70% of marriages that took place in the 1990s made it to their 15th anniversary. This is up from 65% for those in the ‘70s and ‘80s. And that number continues to increase. The divorce rate for couples married in the 2000s is even lower.

Related Reading: How to File for Divorce in Oregon

Millennials

Millennials, born between 1981-2000, rely more heavily on technology than any previous generation. This is the age group that grew up almost entirely with computers in homes and schools.

Generally raised by involved parents, they have a reputation for being overindulged and entitled.

As far as marriage and divorce compared to other generations, Millennials continue some of GenX’s trends. Their marriage rate is the lowest in years at 26%. Compare that to 36% for Generation X, 48% for Baby Boomers, and 65% for the Mature Silents. Millennials put marriage off, or avoid it altogether, at higher rates than ever.

Many attribute this to changing gender roles, increased focus on education, and financial concerns. It’s more common than ever for a couple to live together and even have children and start families without marrying.

Again, this represents a generational evolution in ideas of marriage and family.

Related Reading: Creating a Divorce Strategy

Gen Z

There’s one more age group, those born after 2001, known widely as Generation Z. There were a few other nicknames along the way, but this one stuck.

They’ve never known a world without cell phones, laptops, or video games. Within these numbers, there are even wider demographic changes.

2006 saw a record number of births, even more than the start of the Baby Boom. So, Gen Z is a big generation.

Consequently, whatever patterns and attitudes emerge will have a substantial overall impact. We’ll have to wait and see if they continue to push off marriage and if divorce rates continue to decline. However, if they continue Millenial trends, their divorce rate seems likely to remain relatively low.

While it’s still too early to look at Gen Z for much concrete information, they promise to be an interesting lens through which to view divorce by generation.

Related Reading: Is the 50% Divorce Rate a Lie?

Getting divorced is a daunting task and an intimidating proposition. In many, if not most cases, hiring an experienced attorney to help you through the process is a sound strategy. However that in itself can be an overwhelming experience.

Finding the right lawyer—more specifically, the right lawyer for you and your case—is tough. (Remember, the best divorce attorney means different things in different cases.) And then you have to meet with your attorney. Fortunately, there are things you can do to prepare for your initial consultation.

Remember You’re Both Meeting For The First Time

Remember, while you’re meeting this attorney for the first time, the initial consultation also presents the opportunity to meet you. This provides a chance for both sides to make sure this is a good fit.

How this goes often differs from firm to firm. You may meet with a solo practitioner, where he or she is the only attorney.

When it comes to firms with multiple lawyers, things vary even more. For example, at Goldberg Jones, after an initial consultation with our managing attorney, he pairs you with the attorney he feels is the best fit for you and your case. However, having someone you’re comfortable with representing you is key.

Related Reading: How Long Does Divorce Take In Oregon?

Make Sure You Can Communicate

Divorce is a traumatic time. You may not always think straight. Being able to clearly and accurately communicate your needs is a huge and important part of the process. If your lawyer doesn’t know what you want, it makes their job, and getting an optimal outcome, that much more difficult.

Your initial consultation is the time for you to gauge this connection. You don’t need to be best friends, but your divorce lawyer is someone you’ll work with closely. Making sure you can accomplish that and effectively communicate is vital to the success of your case.

Related Reading: Does Oregon Have Common Law Marriage?

Is Your Lawyer Experienced In Your Area?

Some attorneys work in many areas. But it makes sense to hire a divorce attorney if you’re going through a divorce. Even then, there’s a great deal of specialization and the initial consultation is also the time to suss that out.

• Do you have kids? If so, a lawyer with experience in child custody cases may be best suited to your case.
• Is there a great deal of shared property to divide? An attorney with knowledge of high-asset divorces might be just what you need.

Whatever specific criteria you have, make sure to ask the right questions. It can relate to taxes, military service, pensions, or maybe you and your spouse own a business together. It’s crucial to find a divorce lawyer who fits the needs and criteria of your case.

Related Reading: Preparing for Divorce

Ask About Fees And Billing

An initial consultation is a perfect time to discuss fees. Part of finding the right divorce attorney is being able to afford the right divorce attorney. Ask your lawyer to explain their billing practices right out of the gate.

• Do the costs break down hourly, by the half-hour, in 15-minute increments?
• Do they also charge for work done by support staff or for making phone calls and sending emails?

No one wants to get blindsided by a massive, unexpected bill.

Related Reading: What is the Average Cost of Divorce in Oregon?

What To Bring To An Initial Consultation

The more information a divorce attorney has, the better idea you’ll get about your case. As such, you likely want to bring a number of documents to your initial consultation.

• Recent tax returns and lists of assets and financial obligations are pretty standard—the more complete your records, the better.
• Bank statements, credit card statements, mortgages, and auto loans are also typical.
• If you own a business with your spouse, bring any corporate tax records.

Basically, collect any pertinent documents ahead of time. This includes prenuptial agreements, any existing court orders, and more. It’s better to have information and not need it than the other way around.

Related Reading: 5 Financial Mistakes that Damage Divorce Settlements

After The Initial Consultation

After your initial consultation, you also have a great deal to do. There are forms to file, a spouse to serve (or service to respond to), and a case to prepare for. If you hire a lawyer, he or she will most likely guide you through this tricky process. That said, there are ways to prepare that may streamline things and cut costs.

• Educate Yourself: Whether you go through mediation, arbitration, or a full trial, it’s good to know what to expect. Understanding the process, you can do some of the legwork. Knowing what’s going on also helps ease stress in a stressful time.
• Organize: Collecting and organizing all the pertinent documents and information saves you and your divorce attorney time and hassle. And if you gather financial papers, tax documents, and more, that’s time your lawyer doesn’t have to spend chasing them down and billing you.
• Know When To Fight And When Not To: Know going in what’s important to you and what you can live without. Divorcing couples often spend time and money battling over items of little consequence. Do you really want to spend $500 in attorney’s fees fighting over a shoebox full of cookie cutters? It happens more often than you think. Don’t be a pushover, but know where you’re willing to compromise. Save the fight for things that have a lasting and substantial impact.
• Your Lawyer Is Not Your Therapist: Your divorce lawyer is on your side and probably knows many intimate details about your life. But that doesn’t mean you should use your time together like a therapist’s couch. You want them to empathize with you, yes, but they’re not for unburdening your deepest thoughts. That gets expensive and it’s not why you hired a legal professional in the first place.

Your initial divorce consultation with an attorney can be a stressful experience. But knowing what to expect ahead of time goes a long way toward preparing you. It helps to know what to ask and what to look for. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but hopefully, it provides a better idea of what’s in store.

Related Reading: Community Property Vs Equitable Distribution: What’s The Difference?

One statistic tossed around frequently is that 50% of all marriages end in divorce. The number varies a bit, but the gist is that roughly half of weddings have a corresponding divorce waiting.  As ubiquitous as this figure is, many just accept it as fact. But is the legend of the 50% divorce rate real or a myth?

Has the Divorce Rate Ever Been 50%?

So, has the divorce rate ever been 50%?

Nope. Never was. Despite the fact that many hold this wisdom as truth, experts have debunked this figure multiple times over the years.

But if the 50% divorce rate is a myth, the question remains, how did it get started? How did it become so widely agreed upon and acknowledged?

How The 50% Divorce Rate Myth Began

It began in the Baby Boomer generation when people born in the post-World War II years began to marry and start families.

In reality, the 50% divorce rate was never the reality. This number is based on projections from the 1970s that it eventually would get that high. But it never did.

Projections held that if two percent of them continued to divorce each year, over the ensuing decades, the numbers would reach 50% or even higher.

The number itself was never a static amount or representative of current marriages. The projections simply suggested it could get that high if this one trend continued.

It’s information that was widely misinterpreted and misquoted. Over time, it was shared so often, with such an air of authority, we collectively stopped questioning it.

The Divorce Rate Is Actually Dropping

The divorce rate did spike in the 1970s and early ’80s, especially after no-fault divorce became the law in most states.

Under these regulations, neither party has to prove the other is at fault to dissolve a marriage. Instead of blaming one another to determine who is responsible, the only qualifier is that if one party wants a divorce, they can divorce.

Though there was an initial upswing in the dissolution of marriage, the divorce rate has declined steadily since.

Leaving out unions where one spouse died, approximately 70% of marriages in the 1990s made it until their 15th anniversary. This is up from around 65% in the ‘70s and ‘80s.

Moving into the 2000’s, the divorce rate was even lower.

A number of factors contribute to the waning divorce rate:

• People wait until later in life to marry and have children.
• Long-term, non-marital relationships grew more common.
• Cohabitation before marriage became more conventional.
• Expectations of what marriage is and what people want and expect out of it changed.

Unlike many previous generations, marriage isn’t a given.

People aren’t in as great a hurry to get hitched and settle down, and many marriages are less rushed. These days, people often push off tying the knot and take their time to get it right.

Essentially, if people are going to go through the effort of marriage, many want to make sure it sticks. And the divorce rate appears to reflect these trends.

Related Reading: Breaking Down Rates Divorce By Generation

Divorce Rate Statistics

While the divorce rate, as a whole, has been in steady decline, that’s not consistent across every demographic and population.

Factors like education level and race are big indicators of a potential divorce. The Washington Post published the following data based on a 2014 survey:

Related Reading: Odd Divorce Laws From Around the World

Education And Its Effect

According to these numbers, 39% of men with a high school education or below will divorce in their lifetimes. The same is true of 37% of women.

With a college education, the divorce rate drops substantially, to 28% for men and 29% for women. Those numbers hold fairly steady for advanced degrees, landing at 26% for men and 30% for women.

Related Reading: Is January Really Divorce Month?

Race And Divorce

The divorce rate fluctuates wildly across racial boundaries:

• 36% of white men and 38% of white women will dissolve a marriage.
• Those numbers are slightly higher for Black men and women, who both clocked in at 42%.
• Hispanic men and women are less likely to divorce, at 27% for men and 30% for women.
• Members of Asian communities are least likely to divorce, with just 16% of men and 18% of women ending marriages.
• Native American population is the most likely, with 44% of men and 45% of women ending a union.

As you can tell, there are a ton of statistics floating around about divorce and the divorce rate. If you look hard enough, you can find numbers about how almost any factor you can think of impacts marriage and marital happiness.

There are big ones like race, economics, and views on children. But there’s also data on cigarette consumption and what role your Facebook relationship status plays in the likelihood of divorce.

While these statistics provide a broad-spectrum, big-picture look at the divorce rate, every individual situation is different. There’s a great deal of crossover from one group to the next.

Just because you fit into one category or another, doesn’t mean your marriage is doomed. And just because it’s been said many times, doesn’t mean 50% of marriages end in divorce.

Related Reading: Breaking Down Rates Divorce By Generation

Countless factors contribute to the end of a marriage. Every situation unfolds differently, but drugs and alcohol too often play into divorce. Hugely detrimental to relationships, the question remains of how substance abuse impacts divorce.

Addiction to alcohol, prescription pills, illegal drugs, and more affects millions of people and often has a catastrophic effect on families. Beyond personal problems, substance abuse impacts divorce and the divorce process in many ways. Some are expected, others less so.

Related Reading: What Is The UCCJA? A Look At How It Protects Children

When Does Substance Abuse Affect Divorce?

At this point, all 50 states, including Oregon, practice no-fault divorce. This means that to dissolve a marriage, there’s no requirement for blame. Neither spouse is “innocent” or “guilty” in the court’s eyes. All the law requires is one spouse to declare a marriage broken, without hope of repair.

Basically, if you ask for a divorce, whatever the underlying reason, the court will grant it.

At least as long as you’re legally married and follow the proper procedure. Aside from that, there’s no need to show a specific cause.

What this means is that, though substance abuse may be at the root of your divorce, it’s not always as impactful to the process. At least in the mechanics. Instead of asking why, the court focuses more on the fact that you want a divorce.

While the reasons don’t necessarily factor in the process, there are still places where substance abuse impacts divorce. Where and how greatly vary from situation to situation, but it often affects settlements, child custody, and more.

Related Reading: Do Criminal Charges Affect Custody Cases?

How Substance Abuse Affects Child Custody

The court sets the best interests of any children above all other concerns when determining custody. And this is one key area where substance abuse impacts divorce in a big way.

If there’s a pattern of behavior that shows drinking or drugs damage parental ability, it’s less likely that the court will award that parent custody.

Things like casual drinking or, now that it’s legal, recreational marijuana use likely won’t move the meter much. Illegal drugs will probably have much more of an influence.

Regardless of the substance in question, however, if it puts the kids in harm’s way, judges don’t look kindly on that.

Multiple drunk driving arrests or disappearing and going on three-day benders, these things negatively affect custody hearings. They don’t paint a picture of a stable, responsible parent.

Depending on the severity of the addiction, the court has a number of ways to proceed. If a judge thinks a child is at risk, they may require supervision for all visitation. Often, this is the other parent or even an outside professional.

A judge may even deny any overnight visits. Courts also often require regular drug or alcohol screenings, and continued visitation may hinge on participation in a treatment program. It’s not uncommon for the court to require a parent to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings or go through similar programs.

In general, the worse things are, the harsher the consequences.

Serious cases may result in one parent getting sole custody and the addicted parent receiving no visitation at all. It’s even possible for a judge to terminate custodial rights completely.

This is usually reserved for extreme circumstances, like if a parent injures the child or puts them at risk. But judges don’t want things to get that far, so they often proceed with caution.

Related Reading: How Legal Marijuana Affects Custody

What About the Division of Property?

The division of property is a huge part of the process and is another spot where substance abuse can impact divorce. Courts don’t use splitting marital assets as a punishment, but excessive drug or alcohol use may still play a role depending on the situation.

Substance abuse most often factors into the division of property when it directly impacts a couple’s finances.

Did one spouse run up excessive bills on a joint credit card at the bar? Did they steal items to sell or trade for drugs? What if the blow through shared savings getting wasted?

In all of these examples and more, substance abuse can impact divorce and property division.

In these cases, the court may use this step to balance things out. It’s possible for a judge to award the wronged spouse a bigger piece of the couple’s shared to make up for this. It doesn’t always, but it happens more often in this type of situation.

Related Reading: What Is A Status Quo Order?

Can It Affect Spousal Support?

Substance abuse can affect spousal support in much the same way it can impact the division of property.

Again, the judge can award alimony if a spouse’s actions negatively impact a couple’s financial standing. If one spouse drains a joint bank account pursuing an addiction, the court may call for additional spousal support.

If you worry about your spouse gutting your savings or racking up debts, taking steps to protect your finances may be in order.

It’s possible to put money in separate bank accounts in only your name or to place valuable items in storage so they can’t be sold. Steps like this often help limit the potential financial fallout.

Interestingly enough, when it comes to spousal support, substance abuse can also have an unexpected effect.

It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes the court awards additional financial assistance to the addicted spouse.

They may require help getting on their feet and finding treatment. This most commonly happens when this individual is earnest about reclaiming their life. Again, this is fairly rare, but it does happen.

Coping with addiction is never easy, whether it’s your own or a loved one. Drugs and alcohol have ruined countless relationships. While it can be devastating on a personal level, substance abuse impacts divorce in a variety of ways.

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