Connecticut Family Law Blog

Many people get that free and easy feeling in summer months. That may or may not be the reason that this time of year is when many people decide to divorce. With kids out of school for summer and vacations in high gear, Connecticut couples seem to be able to make the decision to end their marriages in the heat of the season since thoughts of divorce peak in the summertime.

There are two months when people file most often for divorce - March and August. Research shows that this is not a one-off, but has been happening for years. Experts believe that during these months couples get the opportunity to spend more time together and with that often comes the realization that things just aren't working out. Lawyers suggest couples begin planning for divorce months before actually making the final decision and filing to end their marriages.

The latest child support statistics have been released by the U.S. Census Bureau and they show how many single parents receive support, how many funds are owed and how many of those funds are actually received by payees. Connecticut family law oversees child support payments in the state. Resident payors and payees figure in the overall statistics collected by the bureau.

There are more than 13 million custodial parents living in the country and more than 48% of them are receiving some sort of child support payments. Fewer than 23% have requested government assistance for help to support their children. Stats show that the average amount of child support received in 2013 was $5,774 or less than $500 per month. Only a little better than 65% of those payments were actually received by the payees.

Getting married means that you have someone else to assume responsibility for, which often lends itself to estate planning. After all, when you have family members and loved ones who could benefit from your assets, you have more of an interest in ensuring that those assets smoothly transition to someone else's ownership when you die.

You don't want your family to have to struggle financially while the assets you acquire during your life slowly wind their way through probate court. Instead, you want them to have the comfort that comes from knowing that their financial issues are more or less addressed as part of your estate plan.

The ways in which a child's paternal father is ascertained have changed over the past decades. Many issues are connected to a child's paternity under Connecticut family law rules, and there are a number of reasons why a child's parentage should be known, especially when it comes to child support. Silent film star Charlie Chaplin knew too well what that could mean having been fingered by his young protégé as being the father of her daughter -- something Chaplin vehemently denied.

Chaplin admitted to having an affair with the 23-year-old woman, but he maintained he did not father her child. This all unfolded in the 1940s when DNA testing was unheard of and the case created a courtroom drama since Chaplin had just wed an 18-year-old woman. The first paternity trial ended in a deadlocked jury. Chaplin's lawyers relied on blood tests: The woman had type A blood, while the child had type B, which meant -- at that time -- that the child's father must have had either type B or type AB blood. Chaplin had type O, so it was thought he could not have been the child's biological father.