Need to Preserve Relationship with Parent Does Not Take Precedence Over...
In Butler v Hess, 85 A.D.3d 1689 (4th Dept. 2011), petitioner father filed a petition seeking to modify the parties’ existing joint custodial arrangement. Specifically, respondent mother had primary...
View ArticleParent’s Obligation to Pay for College Is Not Limited To Cost of SUNY...
In Pamela T. v. Marc B., 2011 N.Y. Slip. Op. 21355 (N.Y.Sup.2011), the court had to decide whether the parent’s obligation to pay for college should be limited to the so-called “SUNY cap”. The Supreme...
View ArticleRatification of Settlement and Separation Agreement
I have previously written about settlement agreements, their contents, modification, validity, and formalities related to their execution. Even in situations where the agreement may have not been...
View ArticleViolation Petition Must Be Sufficiently Specific to Provide Notice of Alleged...
In Miller v Miller, 90 A.D.3d 1185 (N.Y.A.D. 3 Dept.) the parties were the parents of two children, born in 2004 and 2005. A custody order entered in March 2008 granted sole legal custody to mother...
View ArticleChanges in Temporary Maintenance and Child Support Statutes
Because of the language in the statute providing for cost of living adjustments, temporary maintenance guidelines income cap was raised from $500,000 to $524,000. The “cap” on each spouses annual...
View ArticleA Cause of Action for DRL 170(7) Can Be Added to A Divorce Complaint Filed...
One of the more interesting procedural issues that arose after the New York State Legislature added a cause of action under Domestic Relations Law §170(7), irretrievably broken marriage for a period of...
View ArticleStatute of Limitations and No-Fault Divorce
Since no-fault divorce became law in New York State almost 2 years ago, it was still unclear whether a statute of limitations would apply to to a cause of action under Domestic Relations Law §170(7),...
View ArticleThere Is No Right to Grounds Trial In A No-Fault Divorce Case
I have previously written on the issue of whether there was a right to trial in a divorce case brought under the no-fault grounds. Earlier, trial level decisions were split, with some courts holding...
View ArticleValidity of Prenuptial Agreements in New York
I have previously written about prenuptial agreements and issues associated with them. Generally, in New York, a prenuptial agreement may be overturned only if the party challenging the agreement...
View ArticleMother Ordered to Stop Posting About Her Children on Facebook
As social media continues to permeate every aspect of our lives, there is a continuing controversy about parents should post information about their children on social media sites. The controversy is...
View ArticleFuture Changes to Spousal Maintenance
When New York Legislature passed the “no-fault” divorce statute in 2010, it created a formula for calculating temporary spousal maintenance under DRL §236[B]5-a. However, it did not set forth a formula...
View ArticleShared Custody and Child Support – Number of Overnights Controls
I have previously written about the case of Baraby v. Baraby, 250 A.D.2d 201, 681 N.Y.S.2d 826 (3d Dept, 1998), where the Appellate Division held that in an equally shared custody case the parent who...
View ArticleUpdate on Duration of Maintenance
When New York Legislature passed the “no-fault” divorce statute in 2010, it created a formula for calculating temporary spousal maintenance under DRL §236[B]5-a. However, it did not set forth a formula...
View ArticleMinors and Rescission of Acknowledgment of Paternity
A recent bill signed into law by Governor Cuomo, allows minors who acknowledged paternity of their children to have a brief period of time when they turn 18 to seek to rescind that acknowledgment ....
View ArticleTransmutation of Separate Property into Marital Property
One of the basic theories in equitable distribution and divorce litigation is that of transmutation. Transmutation theory holds that by their actions, the parties are able to modify the status of the...
View ArticleSurrogacy and Adoption
One area where New York still lags behind other states has to do with surrogacy contracts. New York does not recognize surrogacy contracts statutorily since it deems the underlying surrogacy contracts...
View ArticleUpdates to New York’s Child Support Standards Chart
According to the Child Support Standards Chart, prepared by New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, Division of Child Support Enforcement, and released March 12, 2014, the 2014...
View ArticleStandard of Living, Diminished Income, Spousal Maintenance and Child Support
The courts in New York have had some difficulty dealing with situations were a claim of recently diminished income has been presented to the court in response to a temporary spousal support...
View ArticleTemporary Maintenance and Payment of Additional Expenses by Monied Spouse
One issue that comes up fairly often in divorce cases is the issue of whether the monied spouse who is paying temporary maintenance is also responsible for additional expenses incurred by the...
View ArticleTracing Method of Dividing Defined Contribution Retirement Assets
I have previously written about division of marital retirement assets which is traditionally done by computing a time based coverture fraction pursuant to the New York Court of Appeals’ decision in...
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