New York Divorce Report - New York's Divorce and Family Law Blog

I have long felt that since money and money issues are the leading cause of divorce, the economic health of a marriage is a good barometer of the overall health of marriage. Ron Lieber, in his “Your Money” column in the New York Times identifies five, often unanticipated, economic stressors capable of destroying even the strongest of marriages. Often, the tensions brought on by financial issues have been exacerbated by a failure of communication. The parties may be foreclosed from solutions that may have been available if both the husband and the wife were “in the loop” and working together... More

There has been much ado about the effects of the economy on divorce. Those who need to sell the marital home to fund their fresh start may now feel imprisoned in their marriage. With greater frequency, those unable to sell their home are forced to continue to cohabit with their spouse. The Daily News featured a story about when a couple cannot afford to separate for which I was interviewed. Follow the link to read the article.  ... More

As the economy continues to falter, there are reports of a couple of distinct trends in family law cases: many couples are putting off their divorces and, if the couples are going forward with their divorces, they doing so without legal representation. NBC News is reporting that “more distressed couples are putting off divorce because the cost of splitting up is prohibitive in a time of stagnant salaries, plummeting home values and rising unemployment.” In more prosperous times, the marital home was the largest asset to be distributed. When it was sold, the proceeds used to be enough to allow... More

Time Magazine questions, Will the Economy Kill Your Marriage? A couple of weeks ago, I noted that as the economy worsened, my practice became busier. Time seems to confirm my observations and even offers some possible explanations for this phenomenon: There's the lawyer theory, that money provides the soft fatty tissue that insulates the marital skeleton; once it's cut back and people get a good look at the guts of their relationship, they want out. And there's the marriage-counselor theory, that couples who were never quite on the same page in the checkbook finally get pushed off the ledger by... More

I was featured in an article on Forbes.com about divorce during the recession. Quoting Billy Joel’s lyric, “They started to fight when the money got tight. . .” I have definitely noticed an increase in work, telephone inquiries about divorce and even traffic to this blog as the economy soured. My experience, according to the article quite explainable . “Recession has always been a factor raising divorce rates," explains University of Chicago Business School economist Gary Becker." .    ... More

In an environment where every day we are greeted with news about the troubled economy, we are thankful for any sign of economic growth. Today, California began performing same sex marriages which may provide a boost to the local California economy. The New York Times reported that: The potential windfall of same-sex marriage was underscored this week in a study by the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law, which estimated that over three years, same-sex nuptials would contribute $684 million to the state’s wedding industry and $64 million to the state budget. The... More

They started to the fight When the money got tight . . .                 Billy Joel, Scenes from an Italian Restaurant With all the talk about recession and the fall-out from the sub-prime mortgage crisis, it is no surprise the telephones in most divorce lawyers’ offices are ringing off the hook. I have even noticed that the numbers of readers of this blog has dramatically increased in the last several months. Jeffrey Lalloway in the California Divorce and Family Law blog notes: The sharp downturn in the market is taking a similarly painful toll on couples who are breaking up.... More