Celebrity Break-Ups Drive Record Number of Divorce Questions on Avvo.com

Cruise/Holmes divorce fuels record spike in divorce-related questions

Seattle, Wash — Avvo, Inc., the web’s largest expert-only legal and health Q&A forum and directory (http://www.avvo.com), released the latest Avvo Legal Advisory (ALA) which shows a correlation between celebrity divorce in the news and increased demand for consumer legal advice concerning divorce. Questions on Avvo.com about divorce spiked in the first half of 2012 to a five-year high, driven in part by high-profile, celebrity divorce cases. Key trends include:

  • An increase of 51% questions about divorce over the previous six months.
  • Fueled by interest in the Tom/Kat divorce, nearly 6,500 divorce questions were asked on Avvo.com during the week of June 25-29, the most ever reported in a single week. Other celebrity divorce news in June fueling the increase:
      • Christie Brinkley/Peter Cook divorce settlement
      • Russell Brand/Katy Perry divorce news
      • David Arquette/Courtney Cox filed for divorce
  • Californians asked the most questions about prenups (15 percent) followed by Texans (12 percent).
  • The divorce question with the most views in the last six months: “Is there a difference between a legal separation and a separation agreement under NY divorce laws?” has been visited more than 3, 290 times.

“Consumers are fascinated with celebrity marriage and divorce gossip and many times my clients will ask what I know about a particular celebrity divorce case,” said Jennifer Brandt, specializing in divorce and family law from the firm Cozen O’Conner and a frequent legal commentator on national television.  “I find that the client is usually looking for reassurance that what they are going through isn’t unique and frequently this discussion lessens their distress over the intimate details they will be disclosing to me in conjunction with their divorce.”

The Avvo Legal Advisory (ALA) features data from Avvo’s user base and community of licensed professionals, as well as analysis of questions asked in Avvo’s Q&A forum.

About Avvo, Inc.

Avvo provides trusted answers to consumer legal and health questions every 10 seconds. In Avvo’s free Q&A forum consumers can get free legal advice or free medical advice from more than 125,000 participating lawyers, doctors and dentists. Avvo’s professional directory provides comprehensive profiles, patient and client reviews, peer endorsements and the industry-recognized Avvo Rating for more than 90 percent of doctors, dentists and lawyers in the U.S.  Avvo launched in 2007 and is privately held with funding from Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures and Ignition Partners.