When your spouse makes, controls, and manages all the money in your marriage, deciding to get a divorce can be an overwhelming and often isolating decision.
Fortunately, you have options that allow you to retain strong legal representation and support when separating from your spouse.
Understanding Your Rights
One person in a marriage often sacrifices career advancement to help support a spouse, children, the home, or all three. And one person always earns more – sometimes much more – than the other. If you earn substantially less than your spouse, you may be the “non-monied spouse” under New York law. That may feel like a vulnerable position.
And, indeed, some people may seek to act on this vulnerability by, say, convincing you to take a deal where you are not comfortable or worse proceeding to a divorce without a lawyer. These bad ideas sound less bad when you are feeling frustrated, powerless, and scared.
How to Pay for Your Divorce
Thankfully, New York State has many safeguards in place to protect the non-monied spouse. Among other things, a non-monied spouse can have a court require the opposing party to pay the non-monied spouse’s attorney at the beginning of an action. This allows you to retain strong legal representation that will know how to navigate the waters ahead.
Support
New York State law also allows applications, at the beginning of a divorce action, to have spousal maintenance (sometimes called “alimony”) and child support paid from the beginning of the divorce action until its conclusion. This is an awesome safeguard which helps level the parties’ playing field during an action’s pendency.
Other Protections
New York State law will also allow full and complete (and mandatory) “discovery” of all marital assets and liabilities. It does not matter if assets are held only in your spouse’s name. You are entitled to learn about everything.
If asserts need to be valued or if it takes substantial work to find them, fees needed to pay for experts (forensic accountants, appraisers) can also be reimbursed to you.
Choosing the Right Divorce Attorney
At Bousquet Holstein, we provide skilled and effective legal representation no matter the complexity or challenging circumstances in your divorce.
We understand this is an important decision and we are here to answer any questions you may have.
Ryan R. Suser
Ryan is an experienced divorce and family law attorney with a reputation for his advocacy both inside and outside the courtroom. His exceptional skills as a litigator and negotiator allow him to successfully represent his clients’ best interests and work out amicable solutions wherever possible.