Are there divorce laws specific to New York?

Until 2010, New York state divorce laws had one significant distinction from those in the rest of the country. There was no provision for no fault divorce.

This means that if you wanted to get a divorce in New York, you had to either have a legally recognized fault ground or separate for at least 1 year and then file the separation agreement with the court. It might sound easy to do one of these things but it is not.

Fault grounds only cover situations such as physical or mental abuse, infidelity, abandonment, being in prison for more than 3 years after being married, etc. Adultery has to be proven by a third party and the abuse standard, know in New York as “cruel and inhuman treatment” is a very difficult standard to meet. Longer marriages require even more cruel and inhuman treatment.

Also, the economy has required more people to remain under the same roof due to unemployment and rising costs in food, housing, etc. The procedures for getting out of a marriage in New York were extremely difficult, expensive and provided a disadvantage to the party with less money, typically the woman.

As of October 12, 2010 no fault divorce has been allowed in New York. This means that the parties do not have to allege marital misconduct but can simply tell the court that the marriage is not working out and a split is necessary.  New York's law is now more similar to other states.