You’ve heard that the winter months are the time of year when divorce cases spike. Since you’ve been thinking about filing for divorce for a while, this catches your attention. Are you really more likely to end your marriage in the winter?
Why it happens
It is true that the winter months see higher divorce numbers at the beginning of each new year. January sees the biggest spike, but that doesn’t just drop off right away. Your odds of getting a divorce are higher in February and March, for instance, than in December. The spike carries some weight and these winter months really do make it more likely — statistically speaking — that you’ll get a divorce.
While every individual case is unique, the trend is thought to have less to do with the season itself, or the weather it brings, and more to do with the holidays. December and November are two months with low divorce rates, not because people don’t want to get divorced, but because they don’t want to do it around a string of traditional family holidays. And so they wait.
Because they wait, there is a backlog of divorce cases. These all start happening in the first few months of the following year. It causes the immediate spike that you see.
In addition, there are divorce cases involving couples who weren’t quite sure if they should split up. They decided that they’d give the marriage one more chance over the holidays. Maybe you were in this position yourself. By the time you get to the following February, though, and things have returned to normal, you may concede that the holidays didn’t save the relationship. That’s when you really file for divorce, even though you were thinking about it for so long.
What steps should you take?
No matter when you decide to get divorced, you need to know exactly what steps to take. Our firm can help when you need it.