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

Pamela Paul, in her New York Times article, The Un-Divorced, discusses the trend of couples separating, but not divorcing.   The primary reasons that parties remain married, but separated are the practical and financial, not familial. The effect of endless separations on the children rarely seems a priority. Perhaps the principle reason couples remain legally wed is to maintain or continue health care coverage.    When a couple divorces, the ex-spouse is no longer to eligible to be covered through the other’s medical coverage.   The former spouse either may maintain the existing policy under COBRA or purchase a policy on his/her own. ... More

Just because an agreement between spouses splits assets in an unequal or one-sided basis does not render the agreement unconscionable. It has long to the policy of courts to hold parties to the terms of their agreements. An agreement between spouses, which is fair on its face, will be enforced even if one party received less than one half of the value of the marital assets unless there is proof of fraud, duress, overreaching, or unconscionability. In the recently decided case of Shultz v. Shultz, the Appellate Division detailed what makes an agreement unconscionable: An unconscionable bargain is one which... More

The New York Times ran a front page story detailing how the availability of medical insurance has become a major consideration in the decision to divorce or to wed. In a poll conducted this spring by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health policy research group, 7 percent of adults said someone in their household had married in the past year to gain access to insurance. The foundation cautions that the number should not be taken literally, but rather as an intriguing indicator that some Americans “are making major life decisions on the basis of health care concerns.” The issue of... More

Postings in two divorce and family law blogs highlight a growing conflict between the states on how to deal with a parties continuing obligation to pay alimony or maintenance, as it called in New York, if the former spouse enters into a domestic partnership. To frame the issue, what happens if you are obligated to pay maintenance to your ex, but your ex rather than  re-marrying, enters into a domestic partnership? A number of states have enacted civil union or domestic partnership statutes which grant same sex couples some, but not all, of the rights and privileges of marriage. Maintenance... More