Law Offices of Ira Bierman

In New York, the Supreme Court of the State of New York is the only court that handles divorce cases. Divorce is granted by a Supreme Court judge. Most of the time divorcing spouses will not need to be involved in a trial. The vast majority of divorces (about 90 percent) are resolved before trial, even if the court must get involved. It is possible for a divorcing couple to reach a divorce settlement on their own and have it approved by a judge without allowing the judge to make any decisions.

Your spouse need not agree with your desire to end your marriage, but lack of desire does affect the process of divorce. Efficient options for divorce will likely not be an option if your spouse does not want a divorce and more than likely, the court will need to intervene and make decisions about the divorce agreement. For instance, division of marital assets will likely be determined by the court.

A person is eligible to file for a divorce in New York if the marriage took place in New York and either one of you has lived in New York for a minimum of one year before filing for divorce. You must pay a filing fee when you file and the non-filing spouse must be informed of the divorce in person. If the divorce is based on no-fault of either spouse, spouses must have been separated for at least six months.

New York allows one spouse to ask a judge to award financial payments to help support that spouse during and/or after the divorce, which is often known as alimony. If parties cannot agree on maintenance, the court will consider many different factors and decide if there should be an award. For instance, the court might consider income of both spouse, length of marriage, age and health of spouses, and present and future earning abilities of each spouse, among other things.

Yes. All grounds for divorce in New York are based on marital fault aside from irretrievable breakdown in marriage. When filing for grounds based on marital fault, the filing spouse will be required to prove that fault occurred. Though fault can be important, it is usually not used to determine alimony or other aspects of a divorce settlement. However, in the case of adultery, if a significant amount of marital assets were spent on a third-party, a judge could rule it was wasteful dissipation of assets.

There are several grounds for at-fault divorces in New York. They include abandonment, cruel and inhumane treatment, adultery, or confinement in a prison for a period of three or more years during the marriage. Irretrievable breakdown in the relationship for a period of at least six months is also a no-fault ground. The state does allow people filing for divorce to use fault grounds when obtaining an uncontested divorce.