USA vs France; Divorce Laws

I was recently interviewed for an Associated Press article comparing the divorce laws in France with those in the USA.  In France, if either spouse refuses divorce, the other spouse must either prove adultery or mistreatment or, in the alternative, separate for at least two years, in order to get a divorce.  However, in France, if the couple does agree on the divorce, they can divorce quickly and there is no need to provide any reason to the court for divorcing.  For the couple that cannot agree, the spouse who is seeking the divorce will have a potentially difficult burden of proof, if he or she does not want to wait through a two-year separation. Read the rest of this entry »

When it comes to divorces that involve children in New York, the first thought that comes to mind is, who gets custody of the kids? Divorce itself is a complicated matter with many facets: emotional turbulence, dividing property, child custody, and many other matters. Yet children are, and should be, the top concern when deciding the terms of a divorce. Traditionally, courts have awarded the mother physical custody of the child or children, and the father is awarded partial custody—mostly commonly every other weekend and shared holidays. Nowadays, more dads are fighting for their rights as fathers and want more involvement with their children’s lives. Read the rest of this entry »

In New York, the courts generally decide which parent is the primary residual parent based on a number of factors (parent’s ability to provide for the child, parent’s stability, parent’s lifestyle, etc.) and ultimately what is for the best interest of the child. Once the custody arrangements are made, problems often arise out of disagreements about which parent the child should live with. Sometimes these disagreements are brought on by the parents, where one parent believes the child should live with him and not the mother (or vice versa). At other times, the custody disagreement is brought about because the child is expressing the desire to live with the other parent. In most states, the children cannot choose who they would like to live with, but once they reach a certain age, they can petition the courts to reconsider the custody placement. Read the rest of this entry »

Some clients have been asking lately, “What is the difference between a regular traditional divorce and divorce mediation or collaborative divorce?”

What is generally advertised with mediation is a way to transform a contested divorce into an uncontested divorce. A contested divorce is any divorce where the spouses cannot agree on one or more issues, such as whether alimony should be paid, how often and when visitation should be, Etc. If the spouses can agree on all issues then the divorce is uncontested. The concept with mediation is that by having both spouses sit down with a neutral third-party mediator they can maybe reach an agreement, and thus, have an uncontested divorce. Read the rest of this entry »

Many New York divorce attorneys have been reporting a significant rise in new divorce cases. The explanation most of these attorneys offer is the worsening economy. As the old saying goes, when money stops coming in through the door love often goes out the window. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in October that the unemployment rate in New York had increased by over 25 percent from the year before.
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