85.7 F
San Fernando
Friday, Mar 29, 2024

SPECIAL REPORT: Recession Provided a Break From Breakups

Jim Reape is senior managing partner of the Reape-Rickett Law Firm in Valencia. He specializes in family law and is a member of the family law section of the California State Bar. His firm focuses on divorce and custody cases – a market that took a downturn during the Great Recession. Reape discusses the correlation between the economy and divorce and how that impacts his law practice. Has played guitar for 40-plus years. Holds a second-degree black belt. Has traveled to Ireland six times and even lived there one summer to work with the physically disabled. Question: Does the state of the economy have an effect on the family law business? Answer: Absolutely. Family law services are offered to individual consumers as compared to business entities. As such, the state of the economy bears directly on the finances of a family and can make access to legal services unaffordable. Also, in divorce, a family typically transitions from a single household to a two-household model with the increased demands on incomes to meet those new additional expenses. They say money is the No. 1 cause of divorce. How does the state of the economy affect divorce rates? Discord in marriage can come from any number of stressors. Certainly disagreement over finances can create a huge divide between spouses, adding fuel to bitterness and blame. So while finances can be a big issue between spouses, some simply cannot see a way to separate financially, while others can’t see staying together no matter how bad the financial outlook is in separation. At times, one spouse, typically the one who can tighten their belt better, can do financially better after separation. How did the economic downturn affect your business? First, many couples lacked incomes to even consider separating and continuing to meet their basic needs as well as the basic needs of their children. Absent of abuse, I found myself counseling unhappy spouses, where separation would only add to their financial distress and cause things such as a need to move from the area to seek more affordable communities. That would mean uprooting children and a possible long-distance move away from the other parent. Therefore, many couples stuck it out through the recession. How does that compare with the economic cycle now? It has been a very long and very slow recovery. However, some families have seen equity return to their real estate and values of their retirement accounts rise. Both of these become sources to tap into for the family to separate and acquire legal assistance in doing so. During hard times, how does your firm continue to bring in clients? We continually update technology and focus our services to areas of need. In some cases, the firm is hired for only specific tasks, as compared to assuming responsibility for every aspect of a case. Early and rapid assessment is provided, so the person has a good view of what life afterwards looks like so they can start taking steps to build that new life. With more sophisticated consumers of legal services, the legal profession needs to evolve to meet specific enunciated needs of the client. How does the economy affect other areas of family law, such as wills, estates and trusts? Consumers turn more often to online solutions that cost less up front. In doing so, they depend less on a lawyer to tailor documents to each client’s specific needs. Time will tell if these were shortsighted mistakes leaving families exposed to more fighting after a loved one passes away due to uncertainty in their documents and their preparation. What are some new developments occurring in family law? I see four things having a huge impact. The first is that the divorce rate has been on the decline. The only group trending differently is the baby boomer generation, or the silver divorce. As these people find that they are living longer, healthier lives and after raising children and fulfilling what they see as their moral obligations, they seek and find happiness apart from their longtime spouse. Another trend is the decline in the marriage rate. Younger couples delay or avoid marriage as they question the value of tying the knot. Without marriage, there is no divorce as we know it. The third issue is technology, which makes consumers much more educated and sophisticated consumers of legal services. Finally, the recession caused courts to have to respond to the ever-increasing number of people trying to make their way through the court system without the assistance of a lawyer, as they could not afford it. The courts now offer various forms of self-help as the number of self-represented parties now greatly surpasses the number of people appearing in court with an attorney. – Stephanie Henkel

Featured Articles

Related Articles