Recently, while doing some research for another blog article, I came across a “divorce calculator” posted on the divorce360.com website. With their permission, I have added it to this article below. The calculator is intended for first marriages only. The calculator works by comparing peoples’ backgrounds to yours. You and your spouse might well end up with two different calculation percentages because each of you comes from different backgrounds. The website advises that the best way then to determine your risk for divorce as a couple is to average the two percentages together. The statistical information they use comes from “historical data based on information given by real people and collected as part of the U.S. Census”. Click here to read more about the calculator.
I am, of course, not in a position to comment on the accuracy of the calculations. There are, of course, many other important factors which are not taken into consideration by the calculator which could alter the percentages considerably. Nonetheless, check it out if you want.
I wonder if the new iPhone I see advertised on television (which says it has 25,000 applications available) has an App for this too.
Attorney
Holidays for those that have become divorced can be very difficult times. Easter is no exception. Have old memories of good times and happiness morphed into feelings of anger, regret and pain? We all know that Easter, in its most religious meaning, is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Some European countries stop the daily ringing of the church bell on Thursday in memoriam of the death of Jesus Christ. The daily tradition begins once again the early morning hours of Easter Sunday in commemoration of the resurrection. Devout Christians in America celebrate Easter in the spiritual manner, as do devout Christians all over the world.
In these challenging and difficult times, and with depressing news and economic turmoil seemingly everywhere, I thought it was worth re-publishing this humorous but poignant “Job Description” recently posted by fellow family-law blogger, Martha Milam, the publisher of the excellent 
Last month, Justice Souter of the United States Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in the case of Kennedy v. Plan Administrator for DuPont Savings and Investment Plan. A dispute had arisen between husband’s estate and his ex-wife over receipt of his Savings and Investment Plan proceeds. A SIP is an “employee pension benefit plan” similar to a 401(K) plan subject to federal ERISA laws. Early on in the marriage, husband had named his wife as the beneficiary to his employer’s SIP plan. The parties divorced and the divorce decree language said that the wife was “divested of all right, title, interest, and claim in and to . . . any and all sums . . . the proceeds [from], and any other rights related to . . . retirement plan, pension plan, or like benefit program existing by reason of [the husband’s] past, present or future employment.” However, the husband never executed a form to remove the wife as his beneficiary of the plan nor did he submit a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) to the employer covering the SIP. He did, however, submit a QDRO covering his pension.
I have been practicing law now for a little over 30 years. It is impossible to describe all the change I have seen in my practice over the years. They range from electric typewriters to voice recognition software to multi-function copiers that can print, scan and send faxes and emails; and almost everyone has a computer and is computer savvy. Ah yes, computers. My first experience with a computer was in 1968 when students were required in my eighth grade class to take “Introduction to Computers.” I would never have predicted then how much those large, clunky devices would change our lives forever!
Valentine’s Day is the start of the busy season for Dayton divorce lawyers. Many couples wait until after the holidays and it gives them time to file their taxes “jointly” and receive a larger refund. It also can be a reckoning day when people decide that they deserve better.
An Ontario, Canada, Superior Court Judge issued a thorough well-reasoned but very unusual decision on January 16, 2009, changing custody of three (3) girls, ages 15, 11 and 9, from their primary caregiving mother to the father based upon evidence of a long pattern of parental alienation. In fact, Mother had denied Father, a vascular surgeon, any contact with the girls for about two (2) years before these proceedings.