Divorce can be a nasty, bitter proposition for two individuals. But for three or more people, it can be downright confusing.

Consider Oakland attorney Frederick Hertz, who specializes in dissolutions of nonmarital relationships.. He once had the privilege of representing one of two factions in the breakup of a romantic household of eight people. Having a hard time keeping track of the dalliances and alliances, he created a chart of who was involved with whom.

"One faction was leaving, and it became very acrimonious," says Hertz, who has his own firm. "Some were siblings, one couple were husband and wife, and there was even a transgendered person."

Welcome to divorce, Bay Area style. While cases involving such a web of relationships in one household are rare, multiple-partner relationships—called polyamorous—are not. In New York, there's a Poly-Pride day (with its own flag), now in its third year. But what goes up must also come down. Hertz is seeing an increase in polyamorous divorces, and with the rapid appreciation of real estate, multiple partners now have something valuable to squabble over. After all, the polyamory folks aren't fringe hippies living in communes or radical queers, but everyday people living everyday—almost banal—lives, as programmers, doctors, business executives.

Hertz says these relationships typically "don't explode ontp smithereens but cleave into factions, where one wants to keep the property and another is excluded." Complicating matters, no legal system has been devised for their dissolution (unlike with conventional marriages). For reasons ranging from the innocent (poor planning) to semi-nefarious (tax penalty avoidance), some parties don't go on title to the real estate they contribute to.

Confusion aside, polyamorous divorces can be less heated. Hertz speculates that the knowledge that the court won't receive them well creates strong incentives for the parties to negotiate. All of which calls to mind the old French expression "Marriage is so difficult, it takes three to make it work." The same might be said for divorce.