Member Article

Mid-length marriages cause the costliest divorces, figures show

Couples who have been married for between nine and 13 years have the most expensive divorces, according to statistics from family law firm JMW solicitors.

JMW’s figures, drawn from over 450 cases handled by the firm’s team over the past two years, indicate that on average divorce fees for a marriage of 10 years will be approximately four times higher than they would be for a marriage of two years.

The costs fall significantly as marriages get either shorter or longer, with the cleanest breaks for couples that have been married either less than two years or more than 18 years.

James Brown, partner at JMW Solicitors, said: “You might expect that the longer a couple has been together, the more complicated and expensive the divorce will be but, in fact, the statistics reveal a significant peak in costs for marriages of between 9 and 13 years.

“One of the biggest complicating factors in a divorce is negotiations over custody and access to young children, and this is more likely to be an issue for mid-length marriages. As children get older, a settlement can often be easier to reach.

“There is also a combination of raw emotion and a significant amount of shared possessions in many medium-length marriages, and this is a recipe for difficult more drawn-out negotiations.

“When longer marriages break down, we often find the negotiations more straightforward, as there is less likelihood of one party claiming they are entitled to a greater share of the combined assets than the other because they pre-date the marriage.

“For couples with retirement in sight, maintaining healthy finances can be a greater concern, and this can be an incentive to settle matters quickly and cheaply – again contributing to the fall off we see in costs.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ground Six .