New York State divorce law is changing a bit this week. Here’s the good news and some bad news about it:
The Good News
When I mediate, I emphasize to my clients that they are making decisions together and that we proceed by agreement. It’s all done in a spirit of cooperation and collaboration. The agreements I draft say, throughout, something to the effect of “Chris and Devon agree that…” or “Devon and Chris acknowledge that…” Even the very name of the document is an “Agreement” rather than a “Stipulation of Settlement.”
But then when it comes time to file the court papers, they’ve always had to say “Chris VERSUS Devon.” So all of a sudden, the spirit of our work together gets degraded by a court system that is, by design, adversarial. The very caption of the case sets the spouses up as enemies. Somebody is suing somebody, and it can create a negative dynamic.
Well, that has now changed, and spouses can file an uncontested joint no-fault divorce together. So now it will say “Chris AND Devon.” Words are powerful, and I think this is a positive change. People decide to get married together, so they should be able to dissolve their marriage together, too.
The Not-So-Good News
Although the New York State court system is called “Unified,” I have found it to be anything but. One example has to do with the length of time it takes to get divorced. Once an uncontested, no-fault divorce petition is filed, it can take anywhere from a few weeks (upstate) to over a year (in New York City) for clients to receive the Judgment of Divorce. Up until now, we could file for an uncontested divorce in any county in New York State that the spouses agreed upon, so I’ve been filing in Dutchess County for the last 5 years. The staff there is easy to work with, phone calls are answered, and divorces usually come through in about a month. That is about to change.
Now we will have to file in the county in which one of the spouses (or the children) lives. Since most of my clients live in Brooklyn or Manhattan, it will greatly change their experience and expectations about when their divorce will be finalized. This can be good for a client who depends on their spouse for health insurance, but in most other ways, it can leave clients frustrated, on edge, and without a sense of closure. While I understand that upstate courts may not have the staff to share the load, it would be great if NYC courts could hire more staff so our citizens could enjoy the same speediness as our upstate neighbors.