Belleville and Edwardsville Divorce Law Blog

When parents in Missouri go through a divorce, issues around child custody and child support can be particularly contentious and emotionally difficult. Often, neither parent wants to lose time with their children and, in many cases, both parents feel that they have received an unfair shake in family court. While joint or shared custody is becoming a growing standard across the country, many fathers feel like they are excluded from their children's lives after a divorce.

In around 80 percent of cases across the country, mothers receive primary custody in family court. However, many of these cases include fathers who do not fight for child custody of their own. Fathers who work to secure custody often have a strong chance of receiving primary or joint custody of their children in a divorce. Fathers may face a slightly more uphill battle if their paternity was not documented on the child's birth certificate. However, fathers can catch up by filing proper paperwork and seeking an active role in the child's life.

Social groups have a strong influence on the lives of people in Missouri. When spouses in unhappy marriages have friends, relatives or co-workers who have ended their marriages, divorce risks rise. A study that looked at the peers of 5,209 men and women determined that the risk of divorce goes up by 75 percent when a spouse has a close friend who goes through a divorce.

Having coworkers who have ended marital difficulties through divorce bumped up a person's chance of divorce by 50 percent. Divorced siblings had a smaller effect on people but still raised their divorce rates by 22 percent.

According to research, children of divorced parents are more likely themselves to get divorced, with daughters of divorced parents having a 60 percent higher chance and sons 35 percent more likely. There are other factors that also make a divorce more likely. People in second marriages and marriages of only a few years have a higher risk than those in first marriages or those who have been married for a long time. However, longevity is no guarantee of a lasting marriage, and couples 50 and older in Missouri and throughout the country are more likely to divorce than the past.

Since 1990, the divorce rate has tripled for people 65 and over and doubled for those 50 and older. Despite theories that this could be linked to major life changes such as children moving out or retirement, studies show there is no correlation with these events. Instead, it has been found that older adults divorce when their marriages are no longer fulfilling to them.

Britney Spears is widely recognized as a pop star by music fans throughout Missouri and the rest of America. Her recent headlining show in Las Vegas has only added to her fortunes. Court documents arising from her current child support dispute with ex-husband Kevin Federline show that her assets total over $56.5 million. Because Spears' income has increased since they originally negotiated a child support agreement, Federline has petitioned the court to increase her support payments.

The former spouses have two sons, ages 12 and 11. Spears already pays their father $20,000 per month, and the parents share custody. According to court filings, Federline needs more money because expenses for the boys have increased now that they are older. He also said that the boys have a substantially different lifestyle when they are with him compared to their mother's household. Federline's income only amounts to about $3,000 a month. His lawyer requested an increase to $60,000 every month.