If you recently moved to California, you may not yet realize that the Golden State actually has a number of unique laws when it comes to family law practice, especially when compared to the typical U.S. state. That’s why the California bar exam is notoriously hard to pass.

The United States has a very high rate of divorce. Across the nation, there is one divorce approximately every 36 seconds, representing about 2,400 divorces per day, 16,800 divorces per week, and 876,000 divorces every year.

Sadly, divorce is all too common in the United States. Now, more than ever, millions of people enter into marriages that will end in divorce. All of these marriages aren’t ending after a few months or a year or two, either. The average length of a marriage that results in a divorce is actually nine years.

You’ve probably heard the statistic that one in two marriages end in divorce, but that’s not strictly true. While half of all first marriages end in divorce, the statistics for previously married couples are far worse.

A report by the U.S. Census Bureau reported that 48.6% of all custodial parents had some sort of custody agreement in place in 2011. As divorce is so common in the United States, custody agreements are a common discussion in family law firms.