Are COVID Divorces Common?

This video features Jillian French, a Family Law attorney based in Texas.

Austin Attorney On Family Law Issues During The Pandemic

Video Transcript:

Jillian French:

The first thing that we saw when quarantine started was parents withholding children from the other parent for fear that the other parent was not going to be careful enough or rise to the first parent’s standards of care regarding this pandemic and being safe.

Rob Rosenthal:

So is all this time spent together during quarantine going to lead to more divorces or fewer? Well, maybe we can find out right now, because that's what we're going to ask the lawyer.

Hi again, everybody, I'm Rob Rosenthal with askthelawyers.com, and my guest is Austin attorney Jillian French with the Vaught Law Firm. Jillian, it’s good to see again. Thank you for making some time for us.

Jillian French:

Thank you for having me.

Rob Rosenthal:

So, I saw one study that said divorce filings are actually down so far during quarantine, which honestly, surprises me a little bit. What are you seeing so far?

Jillian French:

When the quarantine first started, our phones weren't ringing. I believe that there was a news article in town that talked about a lot of family lawyers experiencing the same thing, just no new cases were coming in. However, as it continued and as things sort of stabilized and people got used to this new normal of working from home and being able to maintain their job in a different way than they had before, we have seen the number of cases increase. It is also a normal thing this time of year for cases to increase. In the fall months we normally see an uptick in new words filings, so it's pretty much on par with what the expectation is for any other year.

Rob Rosenthal:

So maybe people whose relationships were struggling just couldn't focus on that with everything else going on in quarantine, trying to figure how to live life like that, and they just put things on the back burner, but maybe now they're moving forward again.

Jillian French:

Yes.

Rob Rosenthal:

So what are some of the issues you've seen that families are struggling with during the quarantine and the lockdown and all that?

Jillian French:

I think the biggest issue is, if you have one household it's always a struggle to figure out how are we going to split this into two households? That is even more difficult during a quarantine. I think that the courts have been a little bit more concerned about having someone move out, to separate the couple when we have a global pandemic going on. So I think the biggest issue is how do we turn this from a single household into two different households in a safe way that's going to keep everybody healthy and still keep a low risk of getting sick.

Rob Rosenthal:

I could see how that could be a struggle. What about families that are already divorced, maybe trying to do the co-parenting thing? Are they coming back to the course? Are they trying to adjust that? What are you seeing there?

Jillian French:

The first thing that we saw when quarantine started was parents withholding children from the other parent for fear that the other parent was not going to be careful enough or rise to the first parent’s standards of care regarding this pandemic and being safe. The Supreme Court of Texas quickly came out and said, “You need to follow any kind of prior court order you have, and withholding children due to the pandemic is simply just not going to be allowed.” So that eventually subsided, and now what we see is parents coming back to court to figure out who's going to make the decision on virtual versus in-person schooling for the children if they have a disagreement. We have seen people come back for temporary reductions in child support, if they've either lost their job or their income has gone down because they own a business that has been affected by COVID. The two most common things we're seeing are people coming back for the in-person or virtual schooling and child support issues.

Rob Rosenthal:

And those are things that generally you would need to go and see your attorney to try and get those changes worked out?

Jillian French:

Yes, particularly for child support. A lot of people think, “Well, I'll just make an agreement with my ex-spouse and we will agree to temporarily reduce child support.” The problem with that is, if there is no court order accompanying that, then you are accruing what's called a child support arrearage and the court will enforce it based on the prior order and not based on any kind of informal agreements. Even if it's just meant to be temporary, any reduction or increase in child support needs to be formalized through some sort of either temporary or permanent court order with a built-in step-up going back to the full child support, if it's only meant to be a temporary decrease.

Rob Rosenthal:

That's great advice. And speaking of advice, what is your advice for the people that are struggling as spouses and/or parents, couples that may be struggling during this time? Are there resources? What are your thoughts for that?

Jillian French:

This could be a number of different things. If someone is experiencing domestic violence in their home, many of the counties have a free victim services helpline; they can either go in and see these people, they can meet up with them somewhere. Obviously if anyone's experiencing a mental health or physical harm emergency, they should contact the police department through 911. If you are just looking for general resources because you're struggling, you can try and contact 311; most of the counties in our area have resources through the county because we have larger populations in these counties. They can point them in the right direction to get help.

I recommend for a lot of my clients that are struggling, if they have insurance, contact your insurance company, see what providers are available, because you're going to be able to work with those providers for a longer term period of time without having to switch providers if you go through something that's provided through the county or something that's providing a free service.

Rob Rosenthal:

What if someone decides they are going to pursue the divorce proceedings, Jillian, and move forward or maybe alter a custody agreement or something like that. Where does that stand right now? Can they come into the office? Are the courts open? Is everything done virtually? Take us through what that process is like right now.

Jillian French:

The courts are open, although they are open virtually right now. So we are able to conduct temporary orders hearings; we're able to conduct final trials now. Travis County recently experimented with their first couple of jury trials doing that remotely through having the jurors use iPads provided to them during the jury trial to stay focused. The courts here have really made a lot of progress in making sure that people still have the access to justice that they need, and also that we can continue to work through the ever-expanding docket in civil divorce cases, all kinds of cases.

Rob Rosenthal:

What about meeting with you, with their attorney, is that all done remotely, or are you seeing people in the office now?

Jillian French:

Right now we're still doing it remotely; we do either telephone conferences or we do conferences via Zoom. If I have a client request a conference via Zoom, I will send them out the link, they don't have to worry about downloading anything, or if they're not tech savvy all you have to do is click on the link I send you and we'll be able to virtually visit with each other, much like this set up right now.

Rob Rosenthal:

Lots of helpful information is always, Jillian, thank you for making some time and answering our questions.

Jillian French:

Thank you.

Rob Rosenthal:

That's going to do it for this episode of Ask the Lawyer. My guest has been Austin attorney Jillian French with the Vaught Law Firm. Remember, if you want the best information or you just want to make sure you can choose a lawyer that lawyers choose, make sure to go to askthelawyers.com first. Thanks for watching, everybody. I'm Rob Rosenthal with
AskTheLawyers™.

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