This page is designed as listing of links to some articles that caught my attention and may help in your search for legal advice, but, from time to time, I may add some notes that may be helpful as you examine legal issues.
Did you know that New York is the one state in the nation in which no fault divorce is not available? In order to get a divorce, you must allege - and prove - that your case qualfies under one of the grounds listed in Domestic Relations Law Section 170 - and if you can't show grounds, the Court will have no choice but to dismiss your case. The relevant section of the law is below:
Sec. 170. Action for divorce
An action for divorce may be maintained by a husband or wife to procure a judgment divorcing the parties and dissolving the marriage on any of the following grounds:
(1) The cruel and inhuman treatment of the plaintiff by the defendant such that the conduct of the defendant so endangers the physical or mental well being of the plaintiff as renders it unsafe or improper for the plaintiff to cohabit with the defendant.
(2) The abandonment of the plaintiff by the defendant for a period of one or more years.
(3) The confinement of the defendant in prison for a period of three or more consecutive years after the marriage of plaintiff and defendant.
(4) The commission of an act of adultery, provided that adultery for the purposes of articles ten, eleven, and eleven-A of this chapter, is hereby defined as the commission of an act of sexual [fig 1] intercourse, oral sexual conduct or anal sexual conduct, voluntarily performed by the defendant, with a person other than the plaintiff after the marriage of plaintiff and defendant. [fig 2] Oral sexual conduct and anal sexual conduct include, but are not limited to, sexual conduct as defined in subdivision two of [fig 3] section 130.00 and subdivision three of [fig 4] section 130.20 of the penal law.
(5) The husband and wife have lived apart pursuant to a decree or judgment of separation for a period of one or more years after the granting of such decree or judgment, and satisfactory proof has been submitted by the plaintiff that he or she has substantially performed all the terms and conditions of such decree or judgment.
(6) The husband and wife have lived separate and apart pursuant to a written agreement of separation, subscribed by the parties thereto and acknowledged or proved in the form required to entitle a deed to be recorded, for a period of one or more years after the execution of such agreement and satisfactory proof has been submitted by the plaintiff that he or she has substantially performed all the terms and conditions of such agreement. Such agreement shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the county wherein either party resides. In lieu of filing such agreement, either party to such agreement may file a memorandum of such agreement, which memorandum shall be similarly subscribed and acknowledged or proved as was the agreement of separation and shall contain the following information: (a) the names and addresses of each of the parties, (b) the date of marriage of the parties, (c) the date of the agreement of separation and (d) the date of this subscription and acknowledgment or proof of such agreement of separation.
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Blogging Your Divorce...and any other case
First, any statement that you make about your case, whether it's a divorce case or any other, can be used against you in the litigation. No lawyer wants a client speaking outside the confines of the legal process.
Second, particularly in divorces, the public expression of hostility is not helpful in settling a case. Unless your desire is to make your divorce lawyer rich or to punish your soon to be ex even though it will cost you money, you will almost always be best served by saying as little as possible during the time before your divorce is granted.
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An important trend in New York matrimonial law: where previously the New York equitable distribution law divided the assets of a divorcing couple without regard to whose fault it was that a marriage was ending in divorce, New York County Supreme Court Justice Jacqueline Silberman has come out with a series of rulings that appear to mark a trend towards severe financial punishment for an abusive spouse.
In DeSilva v. DeSilva, Justice Silberman found that a wife was entitled to allof the couple's marital property, which would otherwise have been divided between the two parties, because the husband had verbally and physically abused the wife. This decision follows on Justice Silberman's ruling in Havell v. Islam, in which the First Department affirmed awarding 95% of the marital property to a wife whose husband had attacked her with a barbell, and told her children not to bother helping her because she was "already dead."
The First Department approved the concept, writing that the husband’s marital misconduct could be used as a factor in dividing property when it was "so egregious or uncivilized as to bespeak of a blatant disregard of the marital relationship.” The highest court in New York, the Court of Appeals, refused to hear an appeal of the First Department's ruling.
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As reported in the Journal News, there's been a shakeup in the Westchester County courts involving the judges who hear divorce cases. http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060623/NEWS07/606230341/1023/NEWS07
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