Almost every time I go to a conference of my peers in New York State, someone comes up to me, looks at my name tag, and says, “You’re Joy Rosenthal? I can’t believe I get to meet you in person!” It makes me feel like a rock star for a second.
In fact, once I was at a Continuing Legal Education class and introduced myself during the break to one of the matrimonial law judges who was teaching it. When we got back into session, he announced, “Sometimes someone is here who you just have to mention. I mean, it’s like having Bruce Springsteen in the audience. I want you all to know that Joy Rosenthal is with us.” It was embarrassing and delightful at the same time. My response was to yell out the name of the person who created it, “Andy Boehmke!” Andy, who was my paralegal for 11 years, is the genius behind it, but I get the credit.
Why all the hype? The alimony and child support calculator on my website is free, relatively easy to use, and accurate. Andy created it as an Excel spreadsheet for use in our office. Then he came to me one day and said, “How about if I put the calculator up on your website. It might get you some web traffic.” I said sure, and despite many suggestions that we put it behind a pay wall, we decided to keep it open to the public at no charge. As a result, I’ve heard that it is used by court personnel and judges – as well as matrimonial lawyers – all over New York State. We finally put ads on it a few years ago to pay for its upkeep. I can’t say that it has gotten me much business, but I think it does go a long way to enhancing my credibility, so that’s not bad.
New York has formulas for determining both alimony (or “maintenance”) and child support. The formulas are somewhat complicated. They are not absolute – there are reasons to deviate – but they are the best estimate for what would be awarded if clients went to court. So I always go over them with my clients and include the calculations in my separation agreements.
A teal calculator and white pen on a white surface.
The general idea is that the State is estimating whether one spouse will owe the other alimony (not if their incomes are too close), and if so, how much for how long. The State also estimates how much of their income a couple will need to support their kids, and how much each parent is responsible for.
These estimates change every 2 years to keep up with inflation. We will update the calculator in a few days to reflect the new caps of $241,000 on the payor’s income for maintenance and $193,000 of the combined parental income for child support. (After all, we are only human.) In the meantime, you can use the new CSSA chart linked here.