Suffolk County Divorce Lawyer
Until 2010, New York did not allow “no-fault” divorce. This meant that one spouse had to prove grounds for divorce. In 2010, the New York State legislature added “irretrievable breakdown” to the list of grounds for divorce. Although irretrievable breakdown is included among the list of grounds for divorce, it was intended to allow no fault divorce. New York’s Domestic Relations Law § 170 lists all permissible grounds for divorce.
The “Gender Gap” may be diminishing. The American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers is reporting that many attorneys say that they have seen an increase in the number of women paying child support and alimony (or maintenance as it is known in New York).
There are a number of possible explanations for this change. It is believed that, as a result of changing “gender roles” in the family, an increasing number of fathers have custody of their children and therefore receive child support from the mothers. Another likely cause is the fact that there has been a tremendous increase in the number of families in which the wife earns more money than the husband, which then, after a divorce, results in the former wife paying alimony (or maintenance) to the former husband.
Today, Maryland’s highest court (Court of Appeals), in the case of Port v. Cowan, unanimously ruled that the state can grant divorces to same-sex couples legally married in other states. The decision states that “a valid out-of-state same-sex marriage should be treated by Maryland courts as worthy of divorce.”
Sophia Hollander of the Wall Street Journal has written a fascinating article about New York’s “No Fault” divorce law which now allows a spouse to seek and obtain a divorce without claiming or proving “grounds.”
In the article, Ms. Hollander details a trial that this blog has covered previously – the case of Sorrentino v. Sorrentino, in which Judge Quinn of the Suffolk County Supreme Court ordered a trial to be held in order to determine if the Plaintiff-spouse had proven that the relationship between her and her husband had suffered an “irretrievable breakdown.”
