Americans Can Afford to Get Divorced Again

Divorce is financially prudent again. Lawyers and marriage experts say that the American divorce rate, which slackened during the recession, is rebounding as the economy improves, the Financial Times reports. Essentially, fewer people are staying together just to save the cost of a breakup. "There is huge pent-up demand,” says one Las Vegas attorney.

In 2009, more than 800 members of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers reported slower business. Now, the pace has quickened. The group’s president, for example, said her practice has picked up by 25%, compared to 2009. The 2008-2009 crisis—when the percentage of Americans who counted themselves as divorced ticked down from 9.9 to 9.7—is still affecting divorce norms, however. “People no longer argue about who’s keeping the house, but about who’s stuck with it,” says the Vegas lawyer. (More divorce rate stories.)