Harrisburg Divorce Legal Blog

The bankruptcy numbers in America are troubling. According to statistics from the United States Courts, 767,721 people filed for consumer bankruptcy in 2017. If you are experiencing financial troubles, it is clear you are not alone. 

Know that you should never feel alone or ashamed about declaring bankruptcy. To help you make your choice, here are five of the most common causes of consumer bankruptcy in the United States:

If you have reason to believe your child's other parent may be abusing drugs, you probably have concerns about the level of care your son or daughter is receiving during his or her time with that parent. Maybe your child is young and you worry about him or her finding and potentially ingesting substances he or she should not, or maybe you worry about your former partner driving your child around while under the influence.

Regardless of your specific concerns, know that parental drug abuse can impact your child's other parent's ability to maintain visitation and custody. Whether parental drug abuse will ultimately affect these areas will likely vary to some extent based on the type of drug abused, the length of the parent's addiction and so on. Here is a closer look at how drug abuse can impact your former partner's ability to parent.

Watching your marriage fall apart can not only devastate you emotionally, it can also significantly impact your finances. According to the Huffington Post, one of the most common reasons people file for bankruptcy is divorce. When you experience financial difficulties on top of the emotional strains of marriage, it can feel like everything is caving in on you.

However, you do not need to feel ashamed about considering bankruptcy. Although going bankrupt may sound completely negative, it can actually give you a necessary fresh start to your finances. Here are some reasons a divorce may lead you to bankruptcy: 

If you pay or receive child support in Pennsylvania, your child will experience many benefits, and you and your child’s other parent may, too, enjoy benefits that might include an improved relationship. Child support is money paid by one parent to the other for the purpose of providing for a child’s needs, with the money frequently going toward food, housing, health care costs and other necessities.

In addition to helping give your child the things he or she needs, collecting or receiving child support can:

• Give unwed fathers an opportunity to pursue child custody or visitation
• Give a child access to a father’s employee and Social Security benefits
• Give a child inheritance rights in the event of his or her father’s passing
• Improve a child’s odds of being successful in school
• Allow a child to have a better understanding of his or her family history
• Make a child less likely to become pregnant as a teen