In its June, 2019 decision in English v. Smith, the Second Department reminds to properly memorialize any agreed-upon understandings or changes to a divorce settlement agreement. The parties’ Separation Agreement was incorporated but not merged into their 2015 judgment of divorce. The father was to pay the mother child support. In addition, the parents would share equally in the costs of their child’s undergraduate and graduate education, extracurricular activities, and uncovered medical, dental, orthodontic,…

In 2011, after the parties separated, the mother received sole custody of the parties’ only child, who resided with her. The father was awarded access every weekend. The father subsequently filed a petition seeking increased access. After a hearing, Kings County Family Court Judge Maria Arias denied the pro se father’s petition. The father appealed, contending that the Family Court should have granted his request for a copy of a forensic report prepared by a…

In this divorce action, Strauss v. Strauss, the husband had obtained access to wife’s iPad and private text messages. He falsely told her that he did not have the iPad and that it was lost. The husband did provide the text messages to his counsel. However, it was not until two years after the fact that it was disclosed that the husband was in possession of the iPad and text messages They announced that…

It took nine years to affirm a five-year maintenance award. In an April 24, 2019 decision of the Appellate Division, Second Department, the Court in Rogowski v. Rogowski affirmed a March, 2010 divorce judgment under which the wife was awarded maintenance for five years of $2500 per month plus 60% of the husband’s annual employment bonus in excess of $14,200. The action for divorce had been commenced in 2008. The Court held that held that…

The separation agreement was the product of mediation; the wife was afforded the opportunity to consult with counsel; and the wife elected to sign the agreement, notwithstanding the advice of counsel not to do so.  “These facts, standing alone, do not shield the separation agreement from judicial scrutiny. The validity of the agreement is dependent upon an examination of the totality of the circumstances, including an examination of the terms of the agreement, to see if…

If you delay going to court after an event that changes rights and obligations, you do so at your peril. In Fortgang v. Fortgang, the parties were divorced in May 2011. Under their stipulation of settlement, the parties agreed that the husband would pay $2,600 per month in basic child support for the parties’ two children. The stipulation provided that this child support obligation would decrease when the parties’ older child became emancipated, but…

Leaving parenting-time decisions to the future agreement of the parents is not a great idea, particularly with quarreling parents. So held the Appellate Division, Second Department, in its February, 2019 decision in Cabano v. Petrella. In that case, the parents had entered into a December, 2013 so-ordered stipulation which, among other things, reaffirmed their joint legal custody, reaffirmed the mother’s residential custody, and set forth a detailed parental access schedule. That arrangement remained substantively…