I recently read an article in the Sunday Times about there being a big increase in matrimonial breakdown following the summer holidays, a fact that every experienced divorce lawyer has known for years.

When you think about it, it is hardly surprising since there is so much expectation attached to holidays, particularly summer holidays and sometimes those expectations turn out to be unrealistic and unfulfilled. What should be a sun-kissed idyll often turns out instead to be a battlefield with fights over activities for the kids, arguments over finances, where to go, where to eat and so on.

However, the time that lawyers look forward to with most relish is Christmas, though this anticipated pleasure has nothing whatever to do with Christmas cheer and goodwill to all men; in fact, far from it. Divorce rates positively soar come early January with the inevitability and predictability of the New Year’s Sales. The post-holiday return to work sees the creation of a revolving door to the divorce lawyer’s office with filing cabinets full to bursting!

The reason why this happens is really quite simple. For most of the time, some couples just muddle through and go about their daily existence with no real dramas. However, joint time off work can often be a game changer. Suddenly, they are thrown together for two weeks at a time, often for 24 hours a day. It’s too much and all that spare time simply provides ample opportunity to analyse the relationship and conclude that, actually, we don’t really like one another!

It’s all very sad of course and particularly so that a marriage, initially based on love, so often ends up being picked apart in a court of law.

Still, look on the bright side, at least it’s keeping somebody in work!