Cobb County Divorce Law Blog

Earlier this week, supermodel Heidi Klum and her husband Seal announced that they had decided to separate and file for divorce after seven years of marriage. Of course, a celebrity divorce is not exactly a new thing (see our earlier Georgia family law blog posts on Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, Kobe Bryant and, of course, Kim Kardashian) but many people were shocked by this split.

The reason for this level of surprise was likely due to the many pictures painted by Klum and Seal throughout their marriage of their happy and loving relationship and family life. They held vow renewal ceremonies on each anniversary, and in interviews they repeatedly talked about one another with love and respect.

According to a recent study into the relative health benefits of cohabitation and marriage, researchers came to a surprising conclusion. People who choose to live together without marrying may be more happy and healthy and have better social ties than married couples.

Throughout history, Americans have valued marriage very highly, believing that it is essential to the health and happiness of American families. But with the increasing number of couples who are choosing to cohabitate, many of whom have children outside of marriage, researchers decide to look into whether our long-held beliefs about marriage were accurate.

It can be difficult enough to separate from a spouse with whom you share a home and a family. So what happens when you share a career with your spouse, and a very public one at that? This is what Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn had to deal with when her husband filed for divorce in November. Because not only was he her spouse, but he was also her coach, scheduler, manager, and press liaison.

However, in the wake of her split from her husband, Vonn has reportedly been having one of her best skiing seasons to date. With six race wins, she is currently leading the overall World Cup standings by a significant margin, and is ranked in the top 15 in all four disciplines for the first time in her career. In addition, she has made history by becoming one of only five female skiers ever to win in all five skiing events.

Earlier this week, we began a discussion of a lawsuit that is currently pending in Fulton County Superior Court. Recently, the judge presiding over the suit granted the plaintiffs' motion for class-action status, a major step toward success in the case.

The lawsuit is seeking an order requiring the state to provide lawyers for parents who are facing possible jail sentences for failure to pay child support. Specifically, the suit claims that indigent defendants in civil contempt claims filed by the state Department of Human Services should have the assistance of legal counsel. Georgia is one of few states that does not provide low-income parents with attorneys in these cases.

Last week, we reported on the nearly $20 million increase in child support collection from 2009 to 2010 in Georgia. Certainly, that is a positive development. Many parents rely on child support payments to pay their bills and make ends meet, and the state should do everything it can to help single parents get the money they need and deserve.

But a new lawsuit is alleging that the state is using unconstitutional means to achieve these collection gains. Specifically, the suit says that the state's failure to provide defense attorneys for parents accused of failing to pay child support is an illegal infringement on those parents' rights. Recently, the plaintiffs in that suit scored a major win when a Fulton County Superior Court judge granted them class-action status.

Last month, we reported on what has become somewhat of an epidemic in the United States: the failure of many parents to pay their court-ordered or agreed-upon child support. According to recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, less than half of all custodial parents receive the full amount of child support owed to them by the noncustodial parents of their children.

However, this does not appear to be the case in one Georgia county. According to Georgia's Child Support Services, $31.5 million in child support was collected in Cobb County in 2010. This was a $3.3 million increase from the amount of child support collected in the county in 2009.

Over the past few years, there has been a common item topping the New Year's resolution lists of many parents in Georgia and throughout the United States: to conclusively determine the paternity of their child or children.

This inference was made by a company called Identigene, which sells over the counter DNA paternity tests. According to the company's executive director, paternity test sales have spiked during the first quarter of the year in every year since the product became available to the public in 2007.

After learning of an affair that took place more than 50 years ago, a 99-year-old man has filed for divorce from his wife of nearly a century. The man and woman have now become one of the oldest couples to file for divorce in history, according to media reports.

The man was reportedly going through an old chest of drawers a few days before Christmas when he came across letters written by his wife to a man that was not him. He confronted his 96-year-old wife with what he had found, and she confessed that she had been involved with another man during a secret affair in the 1940s. The husband became very upset about the 50-year-old betrayal, and decided to file for divorce.