Family Law
Family law represents the law at its most personal. Issues that involve our marriages, our children, and our homes are deeply challenging and extremely important. Our attorneys handle these cases with diligence and compassion so that you can move on with your life and preserve and protect your dignity.
A. Divorce
Sometimes, despite our best intentions and efforts, marriages break down. For this reason, the law provides a process to dissolve a marriage, allowing the spouses to go their separate ways and resume their separate lives.
New York permits divorce on either a basis of “fault,” or “no-fault.” Fault-based divorce cases allege cruel and inhuman treatment, abandonment for over one year, imprisonment for more than three years, or adultery. No-fault divorce can be based on irretrievable breakdown of the marriage lasting over six months, or a separation.
Divorce cases can involve many different factors, including the residence, children, property, retirement rights, and debts. Understanding the implications of a divorce before it is filed can protect both your finances and your mental well-being- the divorce process, if not handled properly, can be a stressful and difficult ordeal.
Our firm represents individuals in contested divorce cases, and can prepare uncontested divorce filings for couples. In addition, we can help draft and file separation agreements, which provide the spouses with independence without formally breaking the marital union.
During a divorce case, we focus on the client’s priorities. In some cases, child custody is the paramount concern; in other cases, keeping the marital home is the primary focus. Since each case is different, we dedicate time to listening to your goals and crafting a plan designed to meet or exceed them.
B. Custody
When a marriage breaks down, the care and custody of the children is typically the most important aspect of the divorce or separation. Children need safety, stability, and nurturing, and ensuring that their needs are met is a vital part of any family law case.
Determinations of custody are made based on a variety of factors, including the parent’s ability to provide for the child, the relationships formed between the child and its parent, the parent’s work schedule, and a host of other factors that vary widely in each individual case.
We understand that your relationship with your child is vital, and that preserving your parental rights is a crucial part of any family law resolution. We employ every legal tool available to ensure that your rights are protected, and we aggressively advocate on your behalf if your custody rights are threatened.
Our relationships with our children are bigger than any legal dispute, and we treat the issue of child custody with the seriousness and urgency it deserves.
C. Support
New York law provides for two different types of support payments in family law cases. Spousal maintenance is paid to a spouse to help ensure that their standard of living is preserved after a divorce, particularly when that spouse has a lower earning potential as the result of the dissolved marriage. Child support is permitted to ensure that the expenses attendant to the raising of children are available to the custodial spouse, so that the children do not suffer as the result of having unmarried parents.
Support payments are affected by several factors, including the length of the marriage, the age of the children, the relative earning capacity of the spouses, the standard of living during marriage, and any special circumstances or special needs in the individual case. Support can be established either by consent of the parties, or by judicial order.
Our experience and expertise with family law cases gives us the background and tools to ensure that your legal rights are protected in support disputes. For support recipients, this means verifying the financial information provided by both sides, effectively advocating for adjustments based on the circumstances, and ensuring that the ordered support is actually paid in a timely fashion. For support payers, this means verifying that the amount of support is justified, fighting attempts to improperly inflate support amounts, and in the case of child support, ensuring that it is being put to proper use.
In many family law matters, the amount of support will have profound effects on the standard of living for both sides reaching far into the future. Having effective representation before support is ordered is crucial to protect your rights.
D. Prenuptial Agreements
Nobody enters into marriage planning to get divorced. However, it is a fact of life that some marriages do not last, and when the couple has significant assets, unique family situations, or other legal issues that could be complicated by a subsequent split, a prenuptial agreement may be appropriate.
A prenuptial agreement, literally an agreement “before marriage,” is a contract signed by both future spouses spelling out their respective rights to each other’s property. The focus of a prenuptial agreement is usually what will happen in the event of a divorce. The most common use of a prenuptial agreement is in cases where one or both spouses have high net worth, or children from a prior marriage, and it is used to give them peace of mind and set their expectations appropriately in case the marriage does not last.
When we work on prenuptial agreement cases, our role is unique, as generally both sides are fully cooperating with each other and have mutual goals. Therefore, part of our job is to anticipate hundreds of different “what happens if…” scenarios, and draft an agreement that satisfies both partners.
A well-crafted prenuptial agreement can help ensure that, if the marriage does not work out, the spouses can part ways amicably, without the need for prolonged litigation.
E. Child Abuse
The safety of our children, and their care and nurturing, are among the most important priorities in our adult lives. One of the worst things we can imagine is someone causing our children physical harm, so the law provides extremely harsh penalties and intrusive processes when child abuse is proved or suspected.
Child abuse investigations are started by New York’s Child Protective Services when they receive a complaint. The complaint can be issued by anyone suspecting abuse, and certain professionals, including doctors, school officials, and social workers, are required to make a report if they suspect child abuse. There are harsh penalties for making false reports.
When a child abuse complaint is made, the investigation begins within 24 hours, and the initial investigation is concluded within sixty days. For that reason, it is imperative that you seek legal help immediately if you are named in a child abuse report, or if your family is contacted by Child Protective Services.
Child Protective Services has broad authority to protect what it perceives as the best interests of the child, including the ultimate penalty of removing the child from his or her home. Because of the severe trauma removal can cause for the child and her family, taking steps to quickly protect your rights is imperative.
If you become involved in a Child Protective Services investigation, whether founded or unfounded, contact our attorneys right away. We will give you advice and information to defend yourself against unwarranted legal action, and to help preserve your parental rights.