NY Divorce Lawyers Negative Reactions to New No Fault Divorce Law

Although the new New York no-fault divorce law has been a great advance in NY divorce law, some divorce lawyers are concerned about some of the secondary provisions that are part of the new law.

For example, the New York Times just published a piece entitled partially entitled Concerns on No-Fault Divorce, where the author John Eligon explores some of the negative responses that the law has received from NY divorce lawyers.

One major concerns that NY divorce lawyers have is that the new law will only allow judges, who in the past had vast discretion when it came to alimony, to only consider the first $500,000.00 of income of a party to make an alimony award.

So if an individual earned $2 million, the judge can only consider $500,000.00 of it when calculating the alimony award.

The two formulas judges will consider:

1)  Thirty percent of the higher-earning spouse’s income, minus 20 percent of the lower-earning spouse’s income.

2) Forty percent of their combined income, minus the lower-earning spouse’s income.

The lesser outcome of these two formulas will be the alimony award, although the law does give judges the option to consider further factors.

Many NY divorce lawyers fear that this will have negative implications for spouse’s of wealthy individuals who, under the old law, would have been entitled to a large alimony award.

The Law Office of David Centeno, PLLC has its finger on the pulse of the new no-fault divorce law and can explain what, if any, implications it has on your divorce.  To schedule a free consultation, please call (866) 830-2064 now.