The Tallied Cost of No-Fault Divorce
Posted on Oct 7, 2010 10:48am PDT
As reported by Staten Island Live, New York's new no-fault divorce law may require divorcing couples to pay more in temporary alimony payments - among other changes - as the law becomes effective on October 12.
In the past, temporary maintenance or alimony had been based on needs. Now it will be based on a the parties' incomes.
The past president of the Staten Island Trial Lawyers' Association, William J. Frew Jr., stated, "It supposedly is going to standardize more the alimony issue in the divorce. I think this is more meaningful than the no-fault provision. It allows us to have an idea of what a client is going to get in maintenance. With this new statute, I think the women are going to get more."
The new law also will have the wealthier of the two spouses pay all, or a portion, of the attorney fees for the lesser wealthy one.
What the no-fault law does permit is a spouse to be granted a divorce based on no marital fault. Previously one spouse had to accuse the other of adultery, cruelty, imprisonment or abandonment.
New York is the last state to adopt the no-fault divorce law.
The new law reduces the need for a spouse to perjure themselves by accusing an innocent spouse of wrongdoing. William J. Leininger, a Dongan Hills matrimonial lawyer said, "We don't want people to mock the law. We want people to respect the law."
Another practitioner, veteran in the field of family and marital law, Great Kills-based Robert Cohen said, "Parties who are stuck in a dead marriage can finally have an avenue to commence a lawsuit to dissolve the marriage. Until now, unless you had [fault-based] grounds, you couldn't plead a case or bring an action."
The Catholic Church is not a supporter of the new law and has said, via website information made by the executive Director of the New York State Catholic Conference, Richard E. Barnes, "Increasingly, society has come to view marriage as disposable and temporary. However, empirical evidence shows that children of divorce tend to suffer many negative consequences throughout their lives, from lower educational achievement rates to higher rates of substance abuse, criminal behavior and imprisonment."
The state's bishops represented in the conference said that there were provisions already set up in the state's laws that did allow for quick divorces when instances of "serious" actions - such as abuse, adultery or abandonment - existed.
Cohen also believes that the new law could spike the number of divorces, Frew doesn't. The average number of divorces per year according to the Richmond County Clerk's Office is 1,087.
New York couples are now weighing their options. Some believe it would be advantageous to wait, while others - those with greater wealth to consider - are anxious to file before the deadline.
If you are considering divorce, whether in New York or another state, it behooves you to learn what the laws are where you reside. See our directory for an attorney closest to you.