I have had a number of friends in the Chicago area go through divorce. It has shown me that there are a surprising variety of divorces, different types and species of the process. A number were recent graduates, high school sweet hearts who were in love with being in love in front of their friends, infatuated with infatuation. But after graduation when life sets in there are all those little things that get under your ribs, all those little personal quirks. Funny, how many of them woke up one day and realized they didn't love one another after all. I've also known a number of older couples to split. Most of these had children, some from previous marriages and some with one another. Everyone is always worried for the kids, and rightly so. Any mid or late life split is almost always harsh and has deep emotional scars that go with it. Families are more literally torn apart, and there are always casualties.

But, whether the divorce involved children or not and whether it was amiable or not, these situations taught me to expect another form of legal proceeding to occur shortly after a couple files for divorce. Each looks for a bankruptcy lawyer. While it seems like just compounding drama, there are good reasons why we would expect divorce and bankruptcy to go hand in hand. After all, one of the chief triggers for marital unhappiness, stress, and eventual divorce is financial hardship. Women tend to want a man who they believe can support them long term, and when that doesn't happen the stress and fear will often cause them to revaluate that standard. On the other hand being unable to provide, or getting stuck in a wage bracket behind one's spouse (situations common in the modern economic landscape) are major stressors to men, triggering aggression and a drop in self-confidence.

Others in the Chicago bankruptcy system are there precisely because of divorce€"the reverse of the previous situations. When a couple splits up and divides property (and children) they end up dividing much more as well€"whether they do so friendly terms or not. Consider a household where both partners work. Even if one of them is part time a divorce will divide their partnered incomes dramatically. Meanwhile, as they will need to seek separate dwellings, pay bills, and eat meals separately, their cost of living essentially doubles. Marriage is a partnership, and in business when partnerships fail they often take the companies down with them.