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

When an action for a divorce is commenced, it is often the case that most of the marital assets available for the payment of legal fees are possessed or controlled by one of the spouses, usually the husband. In order to ensure that the parties will have equal access to skilled legal representation, the Domestic Relations Law authorizes awards of interim counsel fees to the nonmonied spouse during the course of the litigation. Because of the importance of such awards to the fundamental fairness of the proceedings, we hold that an application for interim counsel fees by the nonmonied spouse... More

A divorce could easily stretch out for a year or more. For this reason, it is not uncommon for a spouse, dependent on the other, to make a motion for temporary maintenance (alimony or spousal support in New York) to be paid during the divorce. Sometimes, for either strategic or economic reasons, no motion is made for temporary support. However, the failure to make the motion for pendente lite maintenance does not necessarily result in a windfall to the economically advantaged spouse. To the contrary, after trial, the advantaged spouse could be found to be arrears in maintenance and owe... More