Matrimonial Law

Under New York law, property acquired between the date of marriage and the filing for divorce is generally classified as marital. Property owned by one spouse before the marriage is considered that spouse’s separate property. However, there are situations where the lines separating marital from separate property are unclear. Some of the most contentious and

In its December 10, 2014 decision in Sabowitz v. Sabowitz, the Appellate Division, Second Department, affirmed the granting of summary judgment dismissing the husband’s challenge to the validity of the parties’ stipulation in which they settled their divorce action. That award had been made below by Supreme Court, Kings County Justice Eric I. Prus. In

A New York parent who fails to pay his or her child support obligations faces a long list of potential penalties, including forfeiture of their driver’s license and passport. In truly egregious cases, courts can sentence non-compliant child support obligors to jail. This is precisely what happened to the obligor-father in the case Longman vs.

In this blog, I have discussed patterns that the New York divorce lawyers at Rapaport Law Firm have observed during our two decades attorneys for victims of domestic violence in New York and New Jersey. In my earlier post, entitled New York Courts Allow Testimony of Battered Women’s Syndrome, I wrote about the cyclical patterns

Earlier this year, Elizabeth Cioffi-Petrakis won an appeal overturning a bizarre premarital agreement with her millionaire husband. At the time, New York divorce lawyers described the decision as a landmark ruling. The decision garnered widespread attention in the media. Several of New York’s celebrity divorce attorneys suggested that the appellate court’s decision would have the

This week, Jessica Keefe, a New Zealand woman who is on trial for murdering Sean Verma, is presenting testimony by a domestic violence expert about Ms. Keefe’s state of mind at the time of the alleged stabbing. Earlier in the trial, the prosecutor described the relationship between Ms. Keefe and Mr. Verma as having been

Each year, I am honored to serve as New York divorce lawyer for dozens of individuals who are seeking to move on with their lives after reaching the painful realization that their marital relationships are irretrievably broken. My clients come from virtually all walks of life. Regardless of the nature of their marital issues or

There are few things more important for an effective relationship between a client and their divorce attorney than their ability to communicate with each other in absolute confidence. This is known as attorney client privilege. The doctrine of attorney client privilege is so important that it is codified in New York Law. Specifically, Section 4503(a)

At some point in his or her career, every divorce lawyer will encounter a case in which one of the parties exhibits symptoms of battered women’s syndrome. The term, which is sometimes abbreviated BWS, first came into usage in the 1970’s and is used to describe the behavioral pattern of a person who is emotionally,

An article published in Today’s edition of the New York Law Journal highlighted the longstanding practice among New York divorce lawyers of filing uncontested divorce cases in New York County (Manhattan) rather than in other boroughs. In the article, several divorce lawyers expressed their preference for filing in Manhattan because the divorces tend to proceed