Essential Foundations of Preparedness for Procedures in the Divorce Process

The release of the January 2017 Report of the New York Chief Administrative Judge's Matrimonial Practice Advisory & Rules Committee (MPARC report), chaired by New York Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey S. Sunshine, provides the stimulus for reflection on the manner in which divorce lawyers process their clients' case matters from the moment that the potential client first walks through their office doors. Thus, it seems appropriate now to look at some of the practicalities of matrimonial practice and procedure in today's environment. What follows may strike experienced, diligent divorce lawyers as elementary, but it bears review from time to time as one's law practice develops and evolves, along with changes in the substantive law and in the procedures and rules applied by our courts. This is the same “back to basics” to which good lawyers, like star athletes, should periodically return.