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Valentine's day can be so romantic - unless you're among the growing number of couples filing for divorce around Feb. 14.
The New York Post reports the number of breakups spike around the holiday, based on data from Avvo.com, a Seattle-based web site that provides ratings and profiles of lawyers and doctors.
"Over the past two years, we've seen an average increase of 40 per cent in the number of requests for divorce lawyers around Valentine's day, compared to the previous six months," Mark Britton, founder and chief executive of the web site, told the newspaper. "Furthermore, the number of questions about divorce has soared 36 per cent during that same time."
Lawyers suggest a combination of factors, including cabin fever and people delaying break-ups til after the winter holidays, may contribute to the Valentine's divorce spike.
Los Angeles divorce lawyer Kelly Chang told the New York Post there are two major groups of people who break up at this time of year: "the 'Delayed New Year's Resoluters' who are merely moving forward on their resolution to be single, just a month late, and the 'Waiting to Exhalers,' who depending on the actions of their spouses on Valentine's Day, will either reconcile or file for divorce."
Yikes. More reason to tell your sweetie how much you appreciate them on Valentine's.
Wency Leung