Broome County Family Law Blog

After parents in New York get a divorce, they usually also have to coparent together. This can require improving some skills, such as communication, and making sure that they focus on the best interests of the child.

There are online tools that can facilitate communication. Offline, a calendar in the home of each parent helps children and their parents keep track of the custody and visitation schedule. Parents should also make an effort to enforce consistent expectations between households. This is usually less complicated than trying to agree on specific rules since this is often an area of conflict between parents.

In New York, a trend called "grey divorce" has been steadily growing. A grey divorce refers to an older couple who files for divorce after many years of marriage. Statistics show that more couples in their 50s are getting divorced. Synonyms for the term "grey divorcees" include "silver splitters" and "diamond splitters." The terms refer to older couples with grey or white hair.

Financial difficulties often play a key role. A married couple experiencing debts and low earnings for many years are in a perpetual state of conflict. Money problems usually lead to arguments. Couples grow weary of the constant bickering and finally decide to get divorced. But grey divorces also occur when one spouse earns most of the money and makes every financial decision. The other spouse may feel left out and isolated. Another problem is when a wife starts earning more money than her husband.

Many people in New York have trouble dealing with medical bills. Pursuing necessary medical treatment may leave Americans with substantial debt that is almost impossible to repay. In fact, over two-thirds of all bankruptcy filings across the country involve medical expenses as part of the overall debt burden. According to a recently released study, around 530,000 people and families file for bankruptcy every year due to the financial impact of a serious illness.

The study was the first performed on the relationship between bankruptcy and medical bills since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed in 2010. According to the researchers, many people are "just one serious illness away" from needing to file for bankruptcy. Even people with medical insurance can suffer major financial consequences from health care treatment. This is due to the number of exclusions, copayments and deductibles that are expensive. The researchers examined a random sample of 910 bankruptcy filings across the United States between 2013 and 2016. According to the researchers, 58.5 percent of bankruptcies were tied to medical bills while 44.3 percent were related to illness-related loss of income. Many people filing cited both issues.

When women in New York develop cancer, heart disease or other serious health conditions, their divorce risk goes up. According to a 2015 study that appeared in "The Journal of Health and Social Behavior," the same divorce risk is not shared by men who suffer from health problems.

Other research supports these findings. Researchers from Purdue University and Iowa State University examined 2,701 marriages and how they were affected by cancer, stroke, lung disease and heart disease. The study found that heart disease or a stroke raised the likelihood of divorce even more than lung disease or cancer for women, but for men, there was no effect.