It has been a running joke since the beginning of the lockdowns, but spending all of that time locked in a house with one’s spouse really does seem to have had the presumed effect we all laughed about: divorce rates are on the rise. There are few busier attorneys right now than divorce lawyers. To add to the influx in case volume, many of these attorneys have a backlog of cases that were on hold while courts were shut down or running on reduced capacity.

Now that the courts are open, and people are free to get out of the house in many places, will we see this spike in family law filings continue? It seems very likely.

China, the home of the first lockdowns, saw a big spike in divorce filings shortly after those lockdowns were lifted. Officials reported not only a spike in case volume, and long lines at the clerk’s office for filing new cases, but also an increase in domestic violence incidents. Back stateside, Spectrum News reports that websites catering to divorce information saw massive traffic spikes in the first months of the pandemic as people suddenly were on lockdown and facing the stress of a global pandemic.

Google Trends, which shows trends in past search volume, interestingly showed a plummet in search demand for the term “divorce” at the beginning of the pandemic lockdowns in 2020, followed by periodic spikes in September, January, and at the beginning of May, this year as things started to reopen. May was, in fact, one of the largest spikes in search volume for the term in almost 5 years of data

Logically, you might also expect a further surge in divorce demand now that things are reopening because many people who were on lockdown with their spouses may have wanted to avoid the awkwardness of filing divorce paperwork while under forced cohabitation and while quarantined away from their other loved ones. Now, they can proceed with divorce with a support system available and plenty of options for accommodations outside of their own home.

And of course, do not forget the courts. Many attorneys ran into either closed courthouses or extremely slow and awkward workarounds to ordinary court procedures while the industry struggled to find its footing in a new virtual world. Now, for areas that have reopened, we all likely have a backlog of cases that need to be wrapped up. Add in the influx in demand and we are setting ourselves up for a time crunch as we have never seen.

Of course, no good business is going to bury its head in the sand and ignore an incoming surge in demand — we don’t want to miss a golden opportunity. Law firms that cater to divorces that find themselves short on time may wish to consider cutting down the amount of time they spent on administrative work and marketing and instead turned to a lead provider that can connect them with potential clients at reasonable, predictable rates. This will other free up time to work on the actual legal work and give them a predictable flow of cases at a predictable cost.

Legal Brands Marketing specializes in connecting consumers in need of legal information and assistance with attorneys, once the potential client is ready and qualified to move forward. We are seeing a huge demand for divorce lawyers – add divorce and other lead types to your campaign today, or start the relationship anew by signing up here today.