how to get a divorce in new york

If you and your spouse are in agreement on the fact that you both want to get a divorce with minimal pain, time and expense, mediation should certainly be your preferred choice.

In the mediation process you will have total control of all the necessary decisions to be included in your Agreement, and those decisions will, of course, be tailored to your needs and those of your family. The mediator will not make any decisions for you or force any decision upon you.

this is how the process works:

Spouses meet together with the mediator who is there to help them have a conversation and work out all the different aspects that need to be included in their Settlement Agreement.

In these sessions which usually last 1 ½ to 2 hours, the issues to be worked out are typically:

Depending on the number of points that need to be worked out and their complexity, it takes about 3 to 6 sessions to get through everything. Sessions can be scheduled weekly or at greater intervals, dependent on what is most convenient for both of you and how quickly you want to complete the process. The mediator will help you go through all the different aspects of your agreement, raise questions to help you clarify certain points, answer your questions, and help you generate options and solutions.

There are times when a couple wants to start living apart before everything is finalized. In this case, an interim agreement may be worked out describing how expenses will be met during that period. Additionally, in the case of families with children, the agreement will include a schedule outlining when each parent will spend time with their children. Some of these decisions may or may not be incorporated into the final agreement.

Once you have agreed on all the issues that need to be worked out, the mediator will draft a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which will include all the decisions you have made. This document will serve as the basis for a lawyer to write up your Settlement Agreement.

At times, during the mediation process, some people may have consultations with an attorney, and/or a financial professional. Many mediators will recommend that the parties have separate attorneys review the final agreement before it is signed.

Based on the fact that New York State is now a No-Fault Divorce state, once all your financial and custody decisions have been agreed upon, and one of the parties states under oath that they have been apart for at least six months, a lawyer can, with your settlement agreement, file for your divorce in the courts. Depending on backlogs in the court schedules, this last part of the process could take two to six months.

Alternatively, if you are not ready to get a divorce within the time frame described above and you wish to wait longer before obtaining your divorce, you would have all your decisions included in a Legal Separation Agreement that you would both sign. When you are ready to move on to that next step, the lawyer would file for your divorce.

There are many benefits of choosing mediation over litigation Mediation = Confidentiality & Privacy:

Mediation keeps the terms of your divorce confidential and private, within the confines of the room you are working in. Information about your personal life and financial situation is not released to anyone. In a litigated divorce, your personal information can be distributed.

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12 Critical Mistakes to Avoid When Considering a Separation or Divorce!!

If you have any questions or concerns about Mediation,
or would like to schedule a no fee mediation consultation,
please don’t hesitate to contact me today!

Jennifer Safian, Mediator

 

jennifer safian

divorce and family mediator

phone: (917) 881-5206

email: jpsafian@gmail.com

divorce & family mediation,

upper east side of manhattan, nyc,

new york, ny

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