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Saving Agreements with Defective or Missing Temporary Maintenance Recitals
New York's interim maintenance statute (2010 N.Y. Laws Ch. 371, ' 1, codified at Domestic Relations Law (DRL) ' 236, Part B, subd. 5-a.), which the Legislature enacted in 2010, has been widely criticized as overly formulaic ' and, because it requires judges to consider many factors in each decision, unduly cumbersome. See, e.g., Joel Stashenko, Maintenance Bill's Formulaic Approach Drew Opposition, NY Law Journal, July 7, 2014 (quoting members of the bench and bar, though some defend the use of formulas); Lee Rosenberg, Multiple Flaws Abound in New Interim Spousal Support Statute, NY Law Journal, Feb. 25, 2011.
Less discussed, but also potentially troubling, are the requirements that the statute imposes on agreements. Those regarding temporary maintenance, to be enforceable, must include a calculation of what would have been the level of temporary maintenance under the formula; a recitation that said “presumptive award” is “correct”; and, if the parties agreed to some other amount, a recitation of the reasons why. DRL ' 236B subd. 5-a(f). Those requirements should be familiar to the matrimonial bar, as the Legislature took them almost verbatim from the requirements for agreements about child support. Compare id . with ' 240 subd. 1-b(h). The Child Support Standards Act inserted identical recital requirements in that paragraph and in Family Court Act ' 413 subd. 1(h). For simplicity, this article cites only to the DRL.
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Bit Parts
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