It’s common for bitter divorces to result in equally bitter custody battles involving children, however recent divorce battles have seen the family pets at the centre of custody struggles. Some divorce lawyers have had to draw up agreements over visitation rights of dogs and to argue over who gets custody. Couples have been spending thousands in legal costs to decide ownership of dogs, and some have even used animal behavioural experts to help them decide who should get the dog.

Divorce lawyer Grant Howell from a London based law firm stated that he was involved in a case where a couple were so heated in their debate over their dog that the court had to decide for them, fearing it would affect other aspects of their divorce case.

With animals it becomes very emotional. It’s almost a peg on which to hang all the other frustrations and to try and get the better of the other person.

Sheffield based divorce lawyer Martin Loxley stated how he was involved in a case where a couple had a document drawn up to decide ownership of their two dogs, so that the dogs weren’t split up in the divorce.

They agreed to share care – one party takes care of them one weekend and then they swap. To all intents and purposes they are both responsible.

According to recent reports, the US army is seeing an increase in divorces among its troops and their wives. This is believed to be caused by the stress the soldiers, and their partners, are facing as a result of the two wars that the country is currently involved in.

The Associated Press claim that the US army has 10,200 divorces for the year ending September 30th, and the Marines suffered 3,077 divorces in the same period. That’s a 3.5% divorce rate, an increase of 3.3% from last year.

Paul Boyce, a spokesperson for the army, stated:

With increasing demands placed on Army families and soldiers - including frequent deployments and relocations - intimate relationships are tested.

The figures also show a 3.7% of marriages involving Marines ended in divorce, an increase of 3.3% on the previous year.

Col. Dave Lapan, a spokesman for the Marines, stated:

”That said, Marine Corps leadership is keenly aware of the burden military families carry in a time of war. Our leaders, from the commandant on down, are paying serious attention to the strain.

Critics of the figures claim that the Pentagon has underestimated the level of divorce among its troops, saying that they haven’t accounted for soldiers whose marriages fail after they leave the army and the Marines.

Christmas time can be a very stressful time for everyone, as families spend a lot of time together causing nerves to become frayed. Arguments can flare up over money, family members than become annoying, presents that aren’t quite to someone’s liking and of course alcohol. It usually leads to a spike in divorce applications in January. The second week in January is actually known as divorce week among legal circles due to the high level of divorce cases that start.

It doesn’t have to be this way though, as the stress and arguments caused at Christmas time shouldn’t always lead to divorce action.

Some advice in keeping a relationship together over Christmas includes:

Don’t rush to any important decisions just because you’re fraught with anger or intoxicated with alcohol. You should also not listen too much when friends or other family members try to goad you into deciding upon a course of actions.

If you’re torn about what to do, seek independent advice from a mediator before taking any action.

Remember too that your children don’t want to listen to their parents arguing. Arguing in front of children is no good for you or them.

Finally you should remember that it is believed that £13,000 is the average cost of a divorce in the UK, so keep that in mind before you say or do anything in the heat of the moment.

When it comes to getting divorced, nobody does it better and more high profile than celebrities. Celebrity divorces always hit the news and make the rest of us wince with the hostility involved, and the huge amounts of money spent by one party in a financial settlement for the other.

The recent settlement between pop star Madonna and movie director Guy Ritchie has easily cracked the top ten list of divorces in terms of expense. According to reports, Madonna is going to shell out somewhere in the region of $76 million to $92 million, making it one of the most expensive celebrity divorces in history.

Included in the divorce settlement is a London pub, bought for $5 million, and a country estate in the heart of Wiltshire which cost $14 million.

While the upper estimate of $92 million may seem a lot of money, when you consider that Madonna earned $40 million last year, the settlement figure won’t stretch her finances too much.

Other expensive celebrity divorces include Drew Barrymore and her split from Tom Green, Pamela Anderson and her divorce from Kid Rock and Jennifer Lopez’ public divorce from Chris Judd, one of her backing dancers.

Divorce has been available via the Internet for some time, saving people the need to go into court and battle it out over financial settlements and custody of the children, but could divorce soon be coming to Facebook?

The social networking website has grown to become hugely popular, since starting out as being exclusively for students of the best universities in the USA. Facebook has millions of users, more photographs than Flickr and more page views than MySpace. It’s a social networking website that has become the biggest social network in the world.

Now it seems legal teams are browsing Facebook looking for people to serve papers to. An Australian judge ruled than legal teams can serve papers using Facebook to notify people about repossession of their house. A mortgage lender in Canberra was unable to trace a couple via conventional means, but could trace them via Facebook. Due to the new ruling, the lender was able to serve papers to the couple via Facebook.

This ruling opens the door for other legal practices to be carried out via Facebook, even the possibility of a divorce on the social networking website.

With British movie maker Guy Ritchie divorcing his US pop star wife Madonna, it seems the Ritchie’s are keeping divorce very much a family affair. Guy’s half-brother, Kevin, is also getting divorced from his wife Geraldine.

There’s more to it than that though, as Kevin didn’t know that he was the half-brother of the famous film director until 1997, when he met Guy for the first time. Kevin’s mother, Lady Amber Leighton, gave birth to him when she was seventeen-years-old, and he was put up for adoption. She revealed to the world that she had another son on a chat show in 2000, and Kevin’s life was changed forever.

According to Kevin’s wife, Geraldine Baynton, her husband changed after he became part of the celebrity world, that saw him mixing with the likes of Madonna, and the stars of Guy Ritchie’s movies, including Brad Pitt.

Now that Geraldine and her husband have divorced, he is only allowed to see his eleven-year-old son via supervised access. According to Geraldine:

Kevin is Guy’s older brother and there is a certain irony that we both started divorce proceedings within a year of each other.

There is a parity to it, like Guy is following in his big brother’s footsteps. There is a great similarity between the brothers, a great similarity. My son Nick looks very like Rocco.

When it comes to getting divorced, you want to make sure that you do everything right from the start. Mistakes can cause your divorce to drag on longer than necessary, and can be very costly; both in terms of legal expenses and in terms of what you end up paying in your settlement.

In terms of choosing a good divorce lawyer, every divorce lawyer has a different approach so your own needs and personal approach might not be suited to every divorce lawyer. A good divorce lawyer will listen to what you have to say and will tailor their approach to suit your personal circumstances.

Also every divorce is different, so any techniques that worked in one divorce case may not work in another, so you want to make sure that your divorce lawyer takes note of your requirements and your relationship with your ex.

For example, when it comes to the cited reasons for divorce, they are rarely the actual cause of a divorce, and your divorce lawyer needs to understand this, and the difference between the reasons given, and the cause.

The world is in a credit crunch, which in many countries, including the UK, has led to recession. There are three constants in any economic climate that you can always rely on; death, debt and divorce.

However with the financial climate the way it is, divorce for many couples isn’t something they can seriously consider, even though a relationship may be over. With the housing market crumbling around our ears, and unemployment rising every day (especially with more high street big names going under) couples are finding that they simply can’t afford to get divorced. Instead they’re having to compromise and work together to sort out their problems, whether that means staying together or not.

Indeed, just because a couple have separated (which is important in some aspects of divorce) it doesn’t necessarily mean that they have decided to live apart. Some couples are staying together in the marital home, but as far as the law is concerned, they’re separated.

This does mean that it can be more difficult to legally and formally establish the date of the separation when couples are still working together.

According to UK divorce law, the pre-nuptial agreement isn’t recognised by UK law courts. Something which many US/Anglo marriages fall foul of, when one party believes that a pre-nuptial agreement will safeguard their assets in the event of a divorce.

However, an American millionaire recently managed to get his Florida post-nuptial agreement enforced in the UK, so that he could restrict how much of his £13.8 million personal fortune his wife was able to claim. His wife is only able to claim £2 million of his fortune, when under UK law she’d be able to stake a claim for half of his money and assets.

Sixty-four-year-old Roderick MacLeod divorced his English born wife Renee Kalb MacLeod, appealing to Britain’s Privy Council for his post-nuptial agreement. His divorce lawyer, Pauline Fowler, stated:

It has been a useful step on the path to recognition of pre-nuptial agreements, and has given some helpful guidance, but may do little more than encourage people to enter into post- nuptial rather than pre-nuptial agreements.

Initially the US businessman tried to offer his ex-wife £1 million, then raising his offer by £1.25 million which he intended to put in a trust fund.

Kate Walsh, the star of Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice, is to get divorced according to reports. It’s believed that her husband, Alex Young, who only married the TV star a year ago, filed for divorce. Alex Young filed for divorce last month, and cited irreconcilable differences as the reason for the divorce.

The couple released a statement following the announcement of their impending divorce:

The couple remain on friendly terms and sincerely hope the media will respect their privacy during this difficult time.

The couple married just last year, in September, after getting engaged in May 2007. Alex Young works for 20th Century Fox.

Just after Walsh married Young, she appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres show and gave a candid interview about her marriage:

There was this kind of funny moment, after we were married and all of the hoopla was over and we were like, ‘What do we do now?

We’re married. Alright, I guess we just live and love and learn from each other.