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'No Fault' Divorce

By Lee Rosenberg
April 28, 2005

In October 2004, I wrote a column for The New York Law Journal outlining the status of “no fault” divorce in the State of New York (Lee Rosenberg, Outside Counsel, “Is the Time Ripe for No-Fault Divorce?” NYLJ 10/20/04 at 4, col 4). In the interim between then and now, we still await consideration of the proposed legislation submitted by the Family Law Section of the New York State Bar Association urging the enactment of a long-overdue no fault statute.

As it stands, many courts that remain constrained by the existing statute (DRL ” 170 and 220), particularly in the Third Department, continue to deny parties their divorces, usually for failure to meet the criteria for the establishment of cruel and inhuman treatment. See, eg, Gerber v. Gerber, __ AD3d __ , 2005 N.Y. Slip Op. 01424, (3d Dept. Feb. 24, 2005); Jacob v. Jacob, 8 AD3d 725 (3rd Dept., 2004) Omahen v. Omahen, 289 AD2d 890 (3rd Dept. 2001); Murphy v. Murphy, 257 A.D.2d 798 (3d Dept. 1999); Doyle v. Doyle, 214 AD2d 918 (3rd Dept. 1995) lv. den. 87 NY2d 809, (1995). See also, Archibald v. Archibald, __ AD3d __, 2005 NY Slip Op. 01152 (2d Dept. 2/14/05); D.A. v. B.E., 2005 NY Slip Op 50281(U), (Sup Ct. Queens Cty. 1/2705) (Lebowitz, J.)

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