Internal family matters are always sensitive issues. When problems become serious enough, these matters can end up in a court of law. In recent years, divorce has likely been the most prominent of all family law proceedings.

Because divorces are not looked as down upon as they may have been just a few decades ago, more people are deciding to take that route rather than staying in unfavorable or abusive relationships. Once it began to become more accepted, it didn’t take long for separation rates to skyrocket. In the United States, there are nearly 2,400 divorces a day, amounting to 16,800 divorces per week, and a whopping 876,000 each year. To put those statistics in perspective, that comes out to one divorce approximately every 36 seconds.

Unfortunately, even in cases where the parties want the same thing, these matters can involve many sensitive problems that require much mediation and family law advice. The average length of a marriage that will end in divorce is nine years. That is plenty of time for them to have purchased property together, started joint bank accounts, and to have children; all complicated matters that require extensive family law advice and court proceedings.

According to the Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their Child Support: 2011 report released by the United States Census Bureau in 2013, of the 14.4 million custodial parents in the U.S., an estimated 48.6% had some form of legal or informal child support agreement in place. Anything involving children is an especially volatile situation that should be mediated by family law child custody lawyers to avoid too much emotional involvement.

With both livelihood and child custody on the line, the court’s decisions can have substantial and long lasting effects on people’s lives. Going in with little to no family law advice or any divorce lawyers may end in expensive alimony, child support, and minimal custody. There’s no reason a spouse shouldn’t have a real say in the fate of their assets or children.