Contested Divorce in New York

A contested divorce in New York can generally be quite a complex and drawn out affair. Once a marriage between two people is finailsed many of their assets become intertwined, that have to be split in a just way, as decided by the courts. As evidenced by the name, a contested divorce in New York is a divorce that cannot reach settlement without external intervention. Here the legal system steps in and tries to impartially split the assets as fairly as possible.

In the New York judicial system divorce settlements are decided equitably. It should not be assumed that this means that every single joint possession is perfectly halved, but in fact means that every one of the joint possessions are broken up according to the input of each of the partners in the marriage.
This is a complex procedure, and it falls upon the lawyers of each of the former partners to convince the court of the size and validity of their claim. This is why an excellent lawyer can be critical, as there are many famous divorce suits that have been highly lucrative.

In a case where a contested divorce in New York is brought before the courts, the first item is to classify which assets are owned by which party. Each person’s individual assets must be deemed to be either personal or marital assets, and both lawyers have to convince the court how every single asset should be classed.

Contested divorce in New York is not straightforward, as a wide range of items can be proclaimed to be martial assets. It is even possible for one member of the marriage to lay claim to a pension that will be given to their ex at a later time. Once the martial assets are identified however, it is then up to the courts to decide how to divide them equitably. Where a certain item a certain asset was the property of one party previous to the marriage but subsequently increased in value, the other party can lay claim to a percentage of the increase. They can make the point that the increase in value occurred due to their support and it is then the responsibility of the courts to calculate the exact financial worth of this contribution. In general the family home is divided evenly in a contested divorce, but this is affected by on whether any children will be affected.