Is an Uncontested Divorce Right for You?

If you and your spouse have already agreed on:

• How to split up your home and other real estate
• How to divide your retirement assets and business interests
• How to divide your debts
• How you will make decisions for your children, and how you will resolve disagreements in making these decisions
• With whom will the children maintain primary residence
• The parenting schedule during the school year, summers, school breaks and holidays
• The amount and duration of child support and spousal support
• Who will claim the Children on his/her tax return
• What type of additional expenses you will share for the Children and how responsibility for these expenses will be divided
• Who will maintain health insurance for the children, will there be health insurance for each of you?
• you may be able to obtain an Uncontested Divorce.

The Process

To begin an Uncontested Divorce, one spouse is designated the Plaintiff and the other the Defendant.  Usually the Plaintiff completes and files most of the paperwork. Click here to read more.

Determining Where to File for Divorce in the 21st Century World of Mobile Families

                   
                   “Not all those who wander are lost.” – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

In the world of mobile families, complex international marriages and overburdened courts, would a New York court accept a divorce case, filed by the husband, an Irish resident, British passport holder and citizen of the European Union against the wife, a U.S. citizen who prefers to reside in Ireland? Apparently, the answer is yes.

In a recent Putnam County Supreme court case, Mr. S. filed for divorce in New York and his wife opposed it, claiming that New York State had no jurisdiction to end the parties’ marriage. Under New York State law, when you commence an action for divorce, the first thing that needs to happen is that the court needs to verify that there is jurisdiction.

Click here to read more.

Thoughts on the Hague Convention

In my last blog, we talked about the U.S. Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA) and its application on an international level. The Hague Act can further complicate an already complex situation. To read the actual text of the Hague Convention of October 25, 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, click here.

In the 21st century, family members often reside in different parts of the world. What happens if the parties live in one country and one of the parents just leaves and disappears with the children? Or, the parties’ relationship is amicable and they are simply trying to understand which country’s laws should govern their separation and divorce?  Click here to read more. 

 

 

Which Court Do You Go To With a Family Dispute in New York? Part 2

Part 2: The Limited Resources Divorce

As I explained in my last blog,  a  family where one party is just seeking custody, can go to Family Court.  If a person just seeks child support or spousal support, he or she can go to Family Court. If,  however, a party is asking for a divorce, that party must file an action for divorce in a Supreme Court. If  he or she needs a judge to help divide pensions, assets or liabilities, he or she must file in the Supreme Court as well.

TO READ MORE PLEASE CLICK HERE

New York Becomes a "No Fault" Divorce State

“Common sense is the knack of seeing things as they are,
and doing things as they ought to be done.” – C.E. Stowe

Finally, after decades of resistance, New York decided to join the other 49 states and offer a “no-fault” divorce option to those couples who want to simply part ways without having to accuse each other of some type of wrongdoing. It took many, many years to get to this point. Every time there would be a proposed bill to add the “no fault” provision to the law it would be defeated because of the resistance from different types of concerned groups and lobbying efforts. Finally this year, it did pass.

What does “no fault” mean? Before, in order to divorce in New York State you needed to come up with a “fault” ground, which means that one spouse had to accuse the other of something. If you had a couple where both sides were in agreement that they wanted to divorce right away, there was no option such as “irreconcilable differences”, which has existed for decades in other states. The only way couples in New York could divorce without being forced to accuse one another was to execute a separation agreement and then wait a year. They could then assert “living pursuant to the terms of the separation agreement for a year” as a ground for divorce. The new “No Fault” ground allows parties to submit divorce documents to court right away without having to wait a year or having one side accept the blame for wrongdoing.

Why the resistance to “no fault”? Historically, some religious groups resisted it because of their concern that if getting divorced became “too easy” people would not try to make an effort to stay together.

The other groups that were against it were those having to do with domestic violence. These groups advocated for victims of domestic violence, both men and women, though statistically women were more often the victims. The primary concern was that if the husbands had the opportunity to get out of a wrongdoing reason for divorce, they would be able to file very quickly, and then use the spouse’s fear to cheat them out of a claim of financial support or equitable distribution of marital assets. For decades there was resistance based on that, but in recent years, some of the members of the organizations that fight domestic violence, came to realize that the abusers tended to be pretty successful in manipulating the court systems even with the wrongdoing grounds, so that wasn’t really helping the victims.

Thus, finally, as of October 12, 2010 you can get a “No Fault” divorce in New York if, according to either party, the marriage has broken down irretrievably and has been broken down irretrievably for at least six months. This doesn’t mean that the couple has to be actually separated for the six months; they just have to state that the marriage was completely broken down for the past 6 months. Now one side can unilaterally allege that the marriage is irretrievably broken and submit a claim for divorce on the basis of this new ground.

This legislative breakthrough did not come without strings attached, however, and there are many strings. The new law only really helps remove the grounds as an issue in a contested divorce, but couples still have to resolve all of the other issues having to do with the children, with child support, with spousal maintenance, and with division of property. Unless all of these are resolved, they cannot get the divorce. If they cannot reach an agreement on all matters, the issues of custody, child support, spousal support and division of property will still go through the court process, but at least the issue of grounds will not.