Divorce lawyers are being swamped with inquiries from unhappy couples following a festive season loaded with booze, over-spending and too much time spent together.

Lawyers said yesterday that the number of divorces instituted during December and January is double that of the other months.

And the number of enquires they receive about divorce increases to about five times the normal amount.

Top celebrity divorce lawyer Billy Gundelfinger said: "Divorces in January annually dramatically escalate, often because of spouses being compelled to spend time together on holiday - during which period they scrutinise and evaluate their relationship - and come to the conclusion that they are completely incompatible.''

Peter Baker, a Cape Town divorce lawyer at Peter M Baker and Associates, said he was once called out by a client who insisted on seeing him on New Year's Day.

"When people are desperate, they're desperate. This guy phoned me and said he had to see me - that day," Baker said.

"He wanted a divorce, and a charge of assault and a protection order [against his wife]."

Baker said a lot of people had affairs during the holidays because "they're on leave, they've got time and it's the festive season, so there's a lot of alcohol involved".

He said that people often spend too much money during the festive season and, "when there's a financial breakdown, very often the whole marriage breaks down".

Wesley Soutter, a partner in a Johannesburg law firm, Soutter, Niselow and Associates, said social networking and infidelity went "hand-in-hand".

"We see a lot of cases with guys having a girlfriend, or even two or three, listed on their phone, whom they might never even meet," he said.

"Then there is back-and-forth messaging of a provocative nature, which the wife finds."

The lawyers are then left smiling - with reams of evidence to use against their client's unfaithful spouse.

"Major influences surrounding divorce at this time of year are year-end functions, financial strain with arguments about money, alcohol, family get-togethers and arguments about the upbringing of children," he said.

"This creates a lot of pressure in the household. Then suddenly he gets caught with the secretary or comes home smelling of perfume - which becomes a melting point for all the influences during this period."

Soutter said that an unopposed divorce settlement could take up to three months to resolve and would cost anywhere between R8000 and R15000.

"In bigger divorces, in which there are large estates and the parties fight for every last cent, it can cost as much as R1-million," he said.

He pointed out that, though the volume of divorce inquiries early in the year was much higher than later, many couples eventually decide to stay together.