Author Archives: Jean M. Mahserjian, Esq.

Paying for Mortgage and Other Bills in the Divorce Process

Often times during a Divorce action, people are concerned about how mortgage, utilities, and debts will be paid. In some cases, one spouse will abandon those responsibilities financially, and it is up to the court to ensure that the status quo is maintained. The court may direct the withdrawn spouse, or both spouses, to continue […]

Paying for Child Support with Non-Reimbursed Medical Bills

In New York State, there are a number of mandatory add-ons to Child Support. In addition to the basic Child Support Payment that is paid each month by the non-custodial parent to the custodial parent, there are additional expenses that must be paid. Those expenses include Non-Reimbursed Medical and Dental Expenses. In the first instance, […]

Handling Dependency Exemptions with Your Divorce Case

Our clients often as us how Dependency Exemptions are handled in a Divorce case. First and foremost, we refer to the federal law, which is the tax code. Under the tax code, the parent who has custody has the right to claim the children as dependents. However, in many instances, the parent’s negotiate an outcome […]

Attorney Fees in Your Divorce Case

Many times, a client will come to me concerned about how to pay for a Divorce action, particularly with litigation. I saw to them that they can seek, through the court, a request for Attorney’s fees to be paid by the moneyed spouse. Obviously, the qualifier here is that they are the less or non-moneyed […]

The Grounds for Divorce Process in New York State

There are a number of Grounds for Divorce in New York State. The Grounds for Divorce is the basis for the granting of the actual Divorce, and those Grounds are contained in New York statutes. Historically, we only had Fault-Based Divorce in New York, but we now have No Fault Divorce. Download Our Free Divorce […]

Filing for Child Support if My Spouse Lives in A Different State

If your spouse resides in another state, you may not be able to file for Child Support in New York State. That will depends upon whether or not your spouse resided in New York State, prior to moving away. It may also depend upon if your spouse abandoned you and the children in New York […]

Grounds For Divorce

To obtain a divorce, we must state a grounds for divorce in the divorce paperwork.  There are still a number of fault based grounds for divorce in New York State law, however for the overwhelming majority of our clients, and almost all of our clients on the Uncontested Divorce website, we file a no-fault divorce.  […]

Child Support

In New York State, the non-custodial parent pays child support to the custodial parent. Now that issue gets a little sticky when we have parents who are sharing custody equally. Under New York case law, the non-custodial parent is the parent who earns more money however that does not mean that in every case of […]

Spousal Maintenence

Spousal maintenance is a term that covers what clients will refer to alimony, spousal support or spousal maintenance. In New York, the proper term is spousal maintenance. Download Our Free Divorce Guide We have two types of spousal maintenance in New York; both are defined by statute.  The first type is temporary spousal maintenance.  Temporary spousal […]

Division of Assets

When we’re talking about the division of assets under New York law, we are talking about the division of assets and debts that were accumulated during the marriage. The New York domestic relations law has an expansive definition of marital property and a less expansive definition of separate property.  Separate property might be a bank […]

Child Custody

Child custody is often one of the more difficult issues that we address when undertaking the divorce process.  We must have a provision for the custody of children 18 years or younger.Now, children are not emancipated until they are 21 in New York but a court can only issue a custody order for children who […]