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As Courts Reopen, Divorce Filings Are on the Rise

The New York Times

According to figures from the Superior Court of California, divorce filings are up significantly in Los Angeles over the past five months, compared with the same period in 2020. Some lawyers and relationship experts say that divorce filings in New York and other states are also on the rise.

[…]

That return to normalcy, or at least semi-normalcy, could mean that couples are finally completing divorces they were forced to delay.

Marilyn Chinitz, a divorce lawyer and a partner at the New York law firm Blank Rome, said that defending a divorced client now “is a lot more complicated and detailed than it used to be.”

“I’ve had to work through the kind of custody issues that did not exist before COVID-19 struck,” she said. “I mean, who could have ever thought back then that we would be hearing plaintiffs and defendants arguing over whether or not the nanny should be vaccinated, or a request that only people wearing masks could play with their children. And then there’s ‘I do not want my child to be educated remotely — I want him or her in school.’”

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“As Courts Reopen, Divorce Filings Are on the Rise,” by Vincent M. Mallozzi was published in The New York Times on September 9, 2021.