In New York, people file for divorce citing one of several grounds. These include adultery, cruel and inhuman treatment, abandonment, imprisonment, legal separation for one year, and irretrievable breakdown.
This last ground, irretrievable breakdown, is new to New York as of 2010, and its addition to state law made New York the 50th state to allow for no-fault divorce.
The courts used to weigh grounds (fault) heavily in determining the outcome of a divorce, but modern jurisprudence encourages quieter divorce actions that are handled by the spouses themselves instead of the court.
To help achieve this end, grounds matter less than you may think, and New York instead applies a concept called Equitable Distribution to marital assets.
That doesn’t mean that everyone gets half and walks away. It means that a spouse who built a stellar career with the support of a stay-at-home spouse will be expected to make some concessions that benefit the stay-at-home spouse, and so on.
Most people have faster, less expensive divorces by relying on the Irretrievable Breakdown, no-fault, option, and skipping the acrimony of an at-fault divorce altogether.
The attorneys at Zelenitz, Shapiro & D’Agostino can help you maximize your divorce settlement, whatever the grounds for the action.
Call us today at 718-523-1111 for a free consultation.