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Monthly Archives: March 2014

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While the panel and the audience primarily agreed the intent of the proposed legislation has merit – there was some concern whether the proposed legislation addresses the need of a mechanism to calculate maintenance awards.Emily Ruben, Esq. (Attorney-in Charge of the Brooklyn Neighborhood Office of The Legal Aid Society) pointed out that many couples going through a divorce do not have substantial assets to divide and that their greatest asset of the marriage is frequently the income of the more-monied spouse.  That being said, moderate and low-income spouses usually cannot afford the often costly litigation required to establish a right to maintenance.Considering the unpredictable and inconsistent climate of maintenance awards, the less-monied spouse will usually settle, albeit under some pressure, to avoid costly litigation.The New York legislative houses are each considering possible legislation to establish guidelines for post-marital income sharing not dissimilar to the Child Support Standards Act. By establishing guidelines for both the amount of maintenance to be awarded and the duration of the award, post-marital guidelines would provide the consistency and predictability for spousal support that the Child Support Standards Act has provided for child support. So we are prompted to ask: Is this Bill a long-awaited solution? Is it indeed the new approach consistent with Chief Judge Judith Kaye’s call for a “cultural revolution” to reduce drastically the time and costs—both financial and emotional—of matrimonial cases? Senator Hassell-Thompson, who introduced the Bill in the Senate, has said, “Neither spouse should feel financially compelled into accepting potentially detrimental or […]