King County paternity case filings.

Last week there was an article about the slight drop in filings in King County Superior Court for domestic case filings.  Typically we find that divorce filings are proportional to the state of the economy where as bankruptcy filings are inversely proportional.  The saying goes that when the economy improves, bankruptcy filings drop because people can now pay their bills.  Meanwhile, as the economy improves, every wife wants a husband 2.0.  The numbers in 2013 and so far in 2014, indicate that bankruptcy filings have indeed dropped, and dropped dramatically.  This is a good thing for our local economy. However, something peculiar has happened on the divorce and family law side of the equation.  Divorce filings are down on a year over year basis.  Divorce filings dropped 5.4% while paternity cases plummeted 19.9%. This is highly unusual for an improving economy.   I’ve often told staff that filings spike in January of each year.  However, something peculiar happened this January.  While divorce and domestic case filings did indeed increase from 327 to 422, The number of King County Paternity case filings still went down compared to December 2013.  Most family law attorneys will tell you anecdotally that this doesn’t happen, but the numbers don’t lie.  What this says for King County is hard to say, but it’s worth watching.