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

Thank you to the Prenuptial Agreement Blog for including me in the list of Top Family Law Blogs. Speaking of prenuptial agreements, a couple of cases addressing prenuptial agreements have been decided by the Appellate Division in recent weeks. Thus, I begin a series of postings addressing these cases. In the recent case of Selinger v. Selinger, the parties entered into a prenuptial agreement, in which they agreed “to waive any rights in and to the other's separate property, including gifts of land to the other as long as the gift was either evidenced in writing or "such records or... More

The martial home is often the most valuable asset to be dealt with in a divorce. Generally, one of three things can happen to the martial home as part of the divorce: it is sold on the open market, one of the spouses buys out the other spouse’s interest, or one spouse is allowed to occupy the home for a period of time, until, for instance, a teen age child graduates from high school, and then the home is sold. If the home is sold, the value to be distributed is easy to ascertain- it is the net proceeds... More

In a case where a husband abandoned his wife and children and failed for nine years to pay any child support, a Court ruled it was appropriate to set off the husband’s unpaid child support obligation against his interest in marital property.   Since the husband failed to pay child support for nine years, his interest in the martial home was set off against the amount of unpaid support. As a result, the Wife was entitled to full possession and title to the marital home.   In the case Pritchett v. Pritchett ( N.Y.L.J. 4/9/07(subscription required), Justice Darrell L. Garvin ruled that the... More