Herald on Sunday

Huge surge in marriage break-ups

‘We’ve closed the doors’: Divorce lawyers face post-lockdown surge in cases

- Sophie Trigger

Divorce lawyers are facing a post-lockdown surge in marriages breaking down. Lawyers up and down the country say demand for mediation as couples separate has never been higher — one says his Auckland firm has had to “close the doors” as it can’t take on any more cases, and another in Wellington says he has seen a three- or four-fold increase on two years ago.

Bastion Chambers Auckland divorce lawyer Jeremy Sutton estimated a 20 per cent increase in inquiries for divorce across the industry.

He was so busy he was no longer able to take on new cases.

“I’m not taking on any new clients this month, and that’s been happening regularly throughout Covid — we’ve closed the doors,” he said.

Wellington barrister and mediator Chris LaHatte said he was also much busier than two years ago.

“I know most family lawyers are extremely busy at the moment. There seems to be almost an unlimited amount of work out there,” he said.

“I’m not quite sure why that is, but the whole Covid, political events, those sorts of things just add to the tension in people’s lives.

“And if you’re worried about things like that you’re more likely to worry about your relationsh­ip.”

His increased caseload was particular­ly reflected in the volume of family mediations, with three to five on the go at any one time.

“I’m doing a lot more family mediations, by a factor of probably three or four times, since two years ago,” he said.

“There was a record month in May for mediation fees. There were a lot of mediations that month but there were also a lot of complex mediations.”

LaHatte was unsure if this was entirely because of the impacts of Covid-19. There was also an increasing trend of family court judges sending more cases to mediation — the process of settling divorce matters outside the courts.

But he believed Covid might have exposed the fragility of marriages already on the edge.

“It probably pushed a few because of all the additional tension people were under was sometimes enough to spark the separation,” he said.

Topics like vaccinatio­n and Covidconsp­iracy theories had also contribute­d to several relationsh­ips breaking down.

“One of the things I always ask these days in parenting agreements as the mediator is the vaccinatio­n clause — what do the parties say about the children being vaccinated?”

Throughout lockdown, parenting arrangemen­ts for couples already separated had been one of the biggest concerns for his clients.

Sutton said that although New Zealand’s lockdown was short, disruption­s to a normal work routine and being confined in one place had affected many marriages, regardless of their demographi­c.

“Their balance has turned upside down a little bit and there is a lot more conflict between them because they can’t hide,” he said.

“You’ve got different parenting styles that you can definitely see during the lockdown – they’re in the same household.”

Issues such as drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence and mental health were also exacerbate­d during lockdown, but Sutton said the financial uncertaint­y of Covid could also be a factor in keeping couples together.

“The ones that are financiall­y struggling, living week to week, those kinds of people are probably going to be reluctant to separate at this time, even for those mental health or drug and alcohol-related issues.”

“Really people are more inquiring about what the situation is and what the options are … they want just to explore what it would be like.”

Even post lockdown, the absence of “protective factors” such as extended family or holidays could make couples vulnerable to breakdown.

“Previously there used to be what we would call protective factors – those things that will protect a person in situations of stress or when things go wrong,” Sutton said.

“Let’s say at Christmas time it might have been a protective factor between a husband and wife that one of their families would enter their Christmas situation as well, and kind of calm things down.”

“During Covid there wasn’t those protective factors. We were kind of exposed to everything.”

As divorces in New Zealand could only take place two years after a couple was separated, Sutton said it might be another year before the full impacts of Covid on marriages could be seen reflected in statistics.

He also estimated a high proportion of people who got divorced never saw a lawyer.

“But [Covid] is kind of causing people to stop and think, what do they want to do in terms of the future,” he said. “What common interests do people have?”

One of the things I always ask these days in parenting agreements is — what do the parties say about the children being vaccinated?

Chris LaHatte

 ?? Photo / Getty Images ?? Covid might have had a hand in affecting marriages already on the edge.
Photo / Getty Images Covid might have had a hand in affecting marriages already on the edge.

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