BIG CHANGES MAY BE COMING IN NEW YORK DIVORCE LAW

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Queens Accident Attorney)

I do not practice New York matrimonial (divorce) law. Although I have many attorney friends who do. I am, however, moved to write about changes to New York State divorce law that are on the horizon.

First off, let me say that I believe that any law that may force a couple trying to end a marriage to lie to a judge to get a divorce is just plain wrong. But this is what current New York Law does. Presently, to end a marriage in New York there must be "fault" - one spouse must take the blame - even if both marriage partners want out of the marriage.

So those seeking a legal New York divorce face a situation where they must go into Court and claim "cruel and inhuman treatment" or "adultery" or "abandonment" - which means the couple have stopped having intimate relations. To make this even crazier, there can be actual abandonment, where one spouse moved out, or constructive abandonment, where the spouses stayed under the same roof, but basically, stopped sleeping together.

Good news. On Tuesday (June 15, 2010) the New York State Senate approved a law that would allow couples to end their marriages by mutual consent, a so-called "No-Fault" divorce; which has nothing to do with motor vehicle accidents or personal injury (which also has a No-Fault law).

The proposed divorce law still has to be passed by the New York State Assembly. But people who know about these things say that they believe that victory in the Senate, which was controlled by Republicans until last year, gives the proposed law momentum and a strong chance of winning approval in the Assembly, which is also controlled by Democrats.

Governor Paterson is expected to sign the bill if both houses of the Legislature approve it.

Efforts to change the state's divorce laws have been repeatedly blocked over the years, even as other states moved to modernize their divorce laws to include some version of no-fault divorce. Opponents included the Roman Catholic Church, which objects to making divorce easier, as well as some women's advocates, who feared that no-fault divorce would deprive women -- especially poor women who could not afford lengthy litigation -- of leverage they needed to obtain fair alimony or child support agreements from husbands seeking to divorce them.

But there are better ways to equalize the finances in a contested divorce than to allow one side to hold up the divorce by refusing to acknowledge the "fault."