LJN Newsletters

In Rosario v. Diagonal Realty, LLC (infra), the Court of Appeals addressed an issue that has perplexed New York courts since Congress amended the section 8 housing program almost ten years ago: Can a landlord terminate its participation in the program at the expiration of a rent-stabilized lease? The Court of Appeals held that the rent stabilization code prohibits termination, and that federal law does not pre-empt the code.

Recent rulings of interest to you and your practice.

Is there a trend in child support modification matters? The cases we looked at in last month's newsletter granting an upward modification of child support appear clearly to be the exceptional ones.

Jurisdiction in a matrimonial action has several statutory components requiring the repeated cross-application of the Civil Practice Law and Rules with the Domestic Relations Law (DRL). Knowledge of the statutes' interplay becomes especially essential to the matrimonial attorney when seeking to affect the status of the marriage and obtain jurisdiction over a non-resident.

The author has spent some considerable time reading and re-reading the Court of Appeals' decision in Keane v. Keane, 3 NY3d 115 (2006), but cannot quite get it. He realizes fully that the court's word on this is the final one ' 'for now.'

A recent case for your review.

To address existing irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs) in the context of a divorce, there are five steps that practitioners must take. The first four were addressed in Part One of this article: Collect Documents; Analyze Current Circumstances and Facts; Establish Insurance Objectives; and Review Existing ILIT to See If and How Objectives Can be Achieved. The conclusion discusses the fifth step.

Have you ever had cases that you felt were appropriate for collaboration, where the clients and lawyers got started but then the clients disengaged from the collaborative process somewhere along the way? This article explains the value of a divorce coach in the collaborative process.