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

The other evening I had the pleasure of being on a panel to discuss the nuts and bolts of legal blogging at a continuing legal education seminar at the New York City Bar Association with three of the best bloggers out there: Kevin O’Keefe, Scott Greenfield, and Eric Turkowitz. As Kevin noted in his blog, Real Lawyers Have Blogs: We covered a lot of ground for the 50 plus in attendance. The program went 3 hours strong running from 6 to 9 PM. . . We reviewed the basics of blogs, blog publishing platforms, better blogging practices, RSS and how to... More

Illegal conduct, like bribing the judge in your divorce case, may be considered as a factor in awarding equitable distribution. Domestic Relations Law §236(B)(5)(d) provides a laundry list of factors to be considered by a court in distributing marital property. The thirteenth factor is the catch-all “any other factor which the court shall expressly find to be just and proper.” The New York Legal Update provides the background of the case of Levi v. Levi in which a husband’s attempt to bribe the matrimonial judge constituted egregious marital fault and was to be factored into the equitable distribution award. The... More

The Appellate Division in Mildy v. Mildy examined some of the factors considered in equitably distributing martial assets. In this case, the Court was confronted with the issues of equitably distributing the wife’s enhanced earning capacity and jointly held real property which was, in large part, paid for with the wife’s separate property. The Wife earned a master's degree during the marriage.  Her enhanced earning capacity  was valued at $140,000. After trial the husband was awarded a half interest in the degree. The Appellate Court reduced the husband’s interest in the wife’s enhanced earning capacity to 25%, and provided the... More

The Pennsylvania Family Law Blog poses the very practical question- what do to with a gift or inheritance received during a marriage? How can one insure that a gift to an adult child does not end up marital property subject to the other spouse’s claims? As the blog post points out, Generally, marital property means all property acquired by either party during the marriage, regardless of whose name it is in. An exception arises for property acquired by gift (except between spouses), such as an inheritance. In New York, the same rule applies. Provided the gift remains in the sole... More