New York Lawyers Can Expect An Increase in Cases Due to No Fault Divorce

New York’s new no fault divorce law – which allows a couple to divorce if one party claims there has been an irretrievable breakdown in the marriage – went into effect on October 12, 2010. Will this increase the number of people filing for divorce? Crains New York Business recently asked me that question, along with other divorce experts, and we all stated in one way or another that we expected that it will. Many unhappy spouses have been waiting for this law to become a reality and New York’s divorce attorneys can expect an influx of new cases in their offices over the next 6 months to a year.

There are 2 types of clients that will be seeking a divorce. The first is the client who may have had grounds under the old law, but had no desire to recount every nasty thing that their spouse said or did to them over the past 5 years. As I stated in Crains, “This is definitely good news. Having a trial on grounds is one of the worst things anyone can do. Clients don’t want it, lawyers don’t want it. It will destroy the family, and it will destroy any goodwill there was.”

The second type of client is the one who has tried couples therapy, who has tried “working on the marriage,” and who has tried to make the best of a bad situation. But regardless of what they did, there was no denying the love was gone. Their home life was not dangerous to their physical wellbeing, but it was crushing them emotionally and spiritually. As attorneys, we are now able to help both of these types of clients to move forward with their lives at a significantly lower financial and emotional cost than it would have cost in the past. This is good news for everyone involved.