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

In yet another odd case, a husband who was attacked by his wife with a three foot samurai sword,was not entitled to a divorce based upon his wife’s cruel and inhuman treatment. Although the Court found that the wife would have killed the husband, but for his daughter’s intervention, the Court in the case S.K. v. I.K. found that: . . . at no time did the husband testify that the alleged cruel and inhuman treatment of him by the wife so endangered his physical or mental well being as to render it unsafe or improper for him to cohabit... More

The verdict is in - it is no shock that the Youtube videos of Tricia Walsh-Smith back fired. I previously wrote about how Mrs. Walsh-Smith lashed out against her husband Philip J. Smith in the her now famous YouTube video.   In the video, Ms. Walsh-Smith discusses, her marriage, the unfairness of her pre-nup, her marital sex life and more.   At one point in the video, she even  called her husband’s office and spoke to his assistant about his stash of Viagra and porn. In my post, I predicted that this attempt to humiliate her husband would not be helpful... More

A number of the presidential candidates are divorced. Fred Thompson, John McCain and Rudy Guliani are all divorced. Should the reasons for their divorces be fodder for their qualifications as President? For instance, there has been discussion on the blogosphere about Fred Thompson’s divorce based upon “cruel and inhuman” treatment. Does this mean the Thompson was a wife-beater or a victim of domestic violence?  Not necessarily. As one commenter pointed out in The Atlantic: Cruel and inhuman treatment" (or something similar) is a common legal cause of action in the divorce law of many states. In states without no-fault divorce,... More

Lindsay Loans’ parents divorce highlights one of the problems with the family law system in New York. As highlighted in Newsday, while the parties’ divorce is heard in the Supreme Court, other issues are being heard in the Family Court. The fact that two courts have jurisdiction to hear and decide some of the issues could lead not only to inconsistent rulings, but also to added confusion, delays and strategic "shopping" for judges, not to mention, increase litigation costs.   Newsday provided gave this short synopsis of the Lohan divorce and custody case: In December of 2005, Michael and Dina... More