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

Because New York remains the only state in the country that does not provide for a no-fault divorce, creative lawyers have been forced to “push the envelope” to develop theories using the statutorily recognized grounds of divorce-abandonment, adultery, cruel and inhuman treatment, imprisonment, and constructive abandonment. In one recent case, the wife alleged that she had been “socially abandoned” by her husband. In Davis v. Davis, the wife of 41 years claimed that her husband: . . .refused to engage in social interaction with the wife by refusing to celebrate with her or acknowledge Valentine's Day, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and the... More

Despite overwhelming support to adopt a no-fault or irreconcilable grounds for divorce, New York remains the only state in which a party must allege and prove marital fault in order to obtain a divorce. By far, the most common fault based ground for divorce in New York is constructive abandonment. In the recent case of Mehl v. Mehl, the Appellate Division defined the elements of this ground for divorce. It is well settled that to establish a cause of action for a divorce on the ground of constructive abandonment, the spouse who claims to have been constructively abandoned must prove... 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

Divorce is not only rampant in America. Crossroads Arabia reports that divorce is so prevalent in Saudi Arabia that divorce lawyers are turning away new clients. Sixty-two per cent of marriages in the western region in Saudi Arabia end in divorce, with a large percentage of those being less than 25 years of age. The number of young divorcees is increasing. Some are getting divorced after one or two years of married life. Coming across a 20-something divorcee is not strange anymore. Khaled Abu Rashid, a Saudi lawyer, said that with a huge number of divorce cases, law firms in... More