Family Law

Like a symptom of the cold weather, marriages tend to freeze over in January.

With the holidays behind them, unhappy spouses start acting on their dissatisfaction by visiting lawyers, Saginaw attorneys say, and what was a trickle of clients in December becomes a torrent the next month.

"After the holidays, any conflict in marriage relations can worsen," said Stephen A. Seman, an attorney in Saginaw for 30 years with a practice at 1002 S. Michigan in Saginaw. "Between Thanksgiving and the first of the year, underlying stresses can exacerbate."

While people start talking about divorce in January, they act on it in February, Saginaw County statistics show.

In 2007, February featured the most divorces in Saginaw County with 86, indicating that people who sought consultations in January followed through the next month.

Seman said there's a lull in divorce consultations during December because "we all want to believe our dreams will come true."

When he returns to his office after the Christmas vacation, "calls increase dramatically," he said. Seman estimates the frequency of divorce consultations soars by 25 to 30 percent from December to January.

It's a trend other lawyers have noticed.

"Historically, more people are shopping (for divorces) in January," said Christopher A. Picard, an attorney in Saginaw since 1983, who opened a private practice with his father, John A. Picard, in 1986 at 820 N. Michigan.

After the holidays, "the euphoria comes to an end and people gear up."

In January last year, 68 people filed for divorce, the fifth slowest month of the year.

As Seman observed, November and December of last year featured the fewest divorces, with 53 and 51, respectively.

Since 1990, the divorce rate both nationally and in Michigan has steadily declined. In 2006, the number of divorces and annulments in Michigan totaled 35,022, or a rate of 6.9 per a population of 1,000.

In Saginaw County, however, the divorce rate was less stable over the past decade. While the rate hovered between 4.3 and 5.9 per 1,000 since 2002, a spike of 7.1 -- 737 actual divorces -- occurred in 2006, placing the county just above the state's average.

In 2007, Saginaw County's number increased to 837 divorces.

Not everyone believes that divorce filings ebb and flow strictly with the seasons.

"Seasonal trends could be anecdotal," said David A. Cable, District Court administrator for Saginaw County.

State offices close and lawyers take vacations during the holiday weeks of November and December, Cable noted, suggesting that a lack of opportunity may cause the low rate of filings in those months.

As much as the winter chills marriages, the summer heats matters up just enough for unpleasant unions to dissolve.

Seman considers summer months the second busiest time of year for divorce, particularly for couples with children. In the summer, with school letting out and all the associated obligations settling down, parents often get their first chance of the year to evaluate their situations, "to focus on their own lives," as Seman put it.

The factors that cause marriages to sour vary widely, but money woes and immaturity are leading causes, Picard said.

In his eyes, many marriages are salvageable.

"Many issues take time to work at," he said. "If (problems) were looked at as bumps instead of potholes, there might be less divorces."

Read more at Michigan Live.