Dissolving a marriage can be both financially and emotionally taxing. If you are currently going through a divorce or are planning to divorce, you should seek the services of a Manhattan divorce lawyer and have them help you handle the case.
A divorce lawyer from Douglas Family Law Group can help you understand your options and guide you through the process so you reach a favorable outcome.
At Douglas Family Law Group, we understand that divorce isn’t easy, which is why we are committed to providing comprehensive services to all clients. When you choose our Manhattan family law attorneys to represent you, you can rest assured that you are in safe hands.
Our team has years of practical legal experience and provides bespoke legal representation to each client we accept.
Get in touch with us at Douglas Family Law Group today and let us help you. Call 914-615-9058 now to schedule a meeting with a professional Manhattan divorce lawyer.
What Are the Grounds for Divorce in New York?
In the state of New York, there are seven acceptable grounds for seeking a divorce. They include:
- Abandonment
- Adultery
- Cruel and Inhuman treatment
- Imprisonment
- Irretrievable Breakdown
- Judgment of Separation
- Separation Agreement
What Is Equitable Division and How Does it Work?
Equitable distribution refers to the method used to equitably split assets or property during a divorce and is generally used in cases where divorcing spouses can’t agree on the division of earnings and assets.
In New York, the judge presiding over the case does his or her best to divide marital property/assets fairly – and that does not automatically mean equally – between the divorcing spouses. The court only considers marital property when distributing assets—not property exclusively owned by one spouse or the other.
What Does Contested Divorce Mean?
A contested divorce refers to a divorce where the involved parties are unable to agree on several pertinent issues. In some cases, the reasons for filing for divorce may affect how confrontational the opposing party becomes. If the main reasons for seeking divorce remain unresolved after mediation and negotiation, the case might have to be resolved by the court.
What Is an Uncontested Divorce?
This type of divorce is one where there’s no disagreement on issues like maintenance, debt allocation, division of property, child support, and custody. Since these issues have already been settled, there’s no need for them to be contested in court. When a divorce is uncontested, the judge presiding over the matter simply signs off on the matter and finalizes the divorce.
What Are the Requirements for an Uncontested Divorce?
For a divorce to be considered uncontested, both of you must agree on several things including your desire to divorce, your grounds for divorce, child custody, child visitation, child support, maintenance, and property division amongst other things.
What Are the Differences Between a Contested and Uncontested Divorce?
In an uncontested divorce, both spouses agree on the dissolution of their marriage and the separation of their assets. On the other hand, when a divorce is contested, it means the parties do not agree with each other on pertinent issues such as who should live with the children, the terms of their divorce, or even whether they should be divorcing.
Discuss Your Options With an Experienced Manhattan Divorce Lawyer
If you’d like to learn more about uncontested and contested divorces and which option you should pursue, contact Douglas Family Law Group to arrange a consultation. Call 914-615-9058 today to schedule a consultation with one of our attorneys.
What Is Spousal Maintenance and Spousal Support?
Spousal maintenance refers to the money one spouse pays the other once a divorce is official. The main purpose of spousal maintenance is to provide financial support to the spouse with fewer resources. The court in New York awards maintenance based on one spouse’s entitlement or needs and the other’s ability to pay.
Spousal support is a payment awarded by the court to one spouse while the marriage is still in place. The spouses may be separated and preparing to divorce.
How Is Maintenance Determined?
In New York, the courts use different calculations to determine maintenance depending on if child support is a factor of consideration in a divorce. Spousal support is calculated before child support payments are determined.
In instances where non-custodial parents are paying both spousal support and child support, the amount to be paid is determined by taking 25% of the paying partner’s income and subtracting 25% of the other partner’s income.
When Can I Stop Paying Maintenance?
Several things could lead to the reduction or termination of spousal support. However, if there’s no longer a need for financial support, then you could request to have it terminated. In most cases, support will most likely cease once the spouse receiving payments cohabitates with another person in a marriage-like relation, remarries, or dies.
Contact Our Manhattan Spousal Maintenance Attorneys
If you’re currently going through a divorce and need help with spousal support or maintenance, you must get in touch with an experienced lawyer. At Douglas Family Law, we can provide guidance on whether or not you should pursue spousal maintenance and how much you could be required to pay or are entitled to.
Call 914-615-9058 now to learn more about how we can help.
What Does a High Net-Worth Divorce Lawyer Do?
A high net-worth divorce lawyer specializes in handling divorces for individuals with high net worths. Such a divorce lawyer has the experience required to deal with complex financial issues that might arise during a divorce and help clients protect their assets.
How Do I Know I Need a High Net-Worth Divorce Lawyer?
If you or your spouse have substantial assets, you need an experienced high-net-worth divorce attorney. This is because such cases often involve complex financial matters that generally lead to a lot of disagreements, especially if part of the wealth came from inheritance or family heirlooms. If you or your spouse has a high net worth, make sure you hire a skilled attorney to represent your interests.
How Can Douglas Family Law Group Help Me With My High Net-Worth Divorce?
Here are some of the ways a high net-worth divorce lawyer in Manhattan can help you.
Correctly Identifying Assets That Should be Protected
Properly identifying assets to be protected in high net-worth divorces is an essential part of legal representation in such cases. As a high net-worth individual, it’s crucial to ensure that some of your assets are protected and are not available for splitting. Our high net-worth divorce attorneys can help you determine which assets are community property and which should be separate property.
Furthermore, there often are hidden assets that may need to be identified and properly evaluated. Determining which assets should be divided and which shouldn’t is crucial, and a high net-worth attorney from Douglas Family Law Group can help.
Properly Valuing Assets in High Net-Worth Divorces
A professional high-net-worth divorce attorney can also help evaluate all assets that are available for splitting during the divorce process. In most cases, the process of determining asset value often involves many complex financial issues and accurately identifying the value of some assets can be challenging.
Furthermore, such cases often involve legal wrangles that involve one party trying to overprice or underprice some of the assets they are giving up or looking to keep.
Our attorneys have the knowledge and experience needed to correctly evaluate all the assets in your high net-worth divorce.
Help Ensure You Avoid Making Emotionally-Charged Decisions
A professional Manhattan high net-worth divorce attorney from Douglas Family Law Group can also help ensure you avoid making emotionally-charged decisions throughout the divorce problem. High net-worth divorces tend to be highly challenging, especially if one of you wanted to divorce and the other didn’t.
Even if the feeling was mutual, divorces can get emotional, and ensuring emotions are kept in check is essential.
Having a professional attorney by your side providing assistance and guidance and protecting your rights is vital to avoid mistakes that could be made when you make emotionally-charged decisions. Our attorneys are here to provide the guidance and emotional support you need through the process so you can make level-headed decisions.
Let a High Net-Worth Divorce Lawyer in Manhattan Help You
When it comes to high net-worth divorces, you need talented, skilled, and experienced attorneys by your side. Get in touch with us today and let our experienced legal team guide you through your high net-worth divorce. Call 914-615-9058 now to schedule a consultation today.
What Is a Business Valuation Lawyer and What Do They Do?
If both you and your spouse owned a business or one’s involved in your divorce, then expect there to be a valuation. When evaluating a company during a divorce, be it small or large, ownership is one of the main things the court will consider. For this reason, you’ll need an experienced valuation attorney to help you estimate the company’s worth.
Business valuation lawyers work closely with other experts to determine a business’s future earnings, future and current market value, competitive advantage, market dynamics, capital structure, etc. They help ensure that the business is properly evaluated and that you get the best deal.
How to Value a Business During Divorce
In most cases, valuing a business requires our attorneys and a team of valuation experts to refer to different case laws and statutes to inform the values needed to handle business valuation during a divorce. As your divorce attorneys, we do our best to ensure you receive what you deserve.
Our valuation lawyers typically use the following strategies to evaluate a business.
The Income Approach
This approach helps determine a business’ worth based on its projected future income potential. This is made possible by capitalizing a company’s income over a specified time using expected return rates or analyzing its annual income over a projected period.
The Assets Approach
This approach focuses on the company’s liabilities and assets as reflected in its ledgers then deducts potential appreciation, depreciation, and adjustments that influence the business value.
The Market Approach
This approach focuses on the company’s worth should a buyer or investor want to buy it and factors in things such as the business’s future earning capacity.
What Information Will Be Looked at to Determine Value?
As valuation lawyers, we never downplay the importance of asset ownership and always do our best to make sure that our client’s interests are always honored. To accomplish this, we work hand in hand with expert valuators to review any company or business you might have owned together with your estranged spouse.
Some of the information we consider when analyzing businesses to determine their value include:
- What the Business Owns – This includes tangible assets such as inventory, machinery, equipment, etc., and intangible assets such as trademarks, goodwill, patents, market share, etc.
- What the Business Owes – We review the liabilities and debts the business owes to determine how these can be fairly distributed among both parties.
- Profitability of the Business – This is accomplished by compiling the company’s expenditures and weighing this information against its income or returns.
Contact Douglas Family Law Group to Learn More about Business Valuation During Divorce
Every operational business has a value and it’s important to know what it is if both you and your spouse own or run one and are involved in a divorce. Our Manhattan divorce attorneys are here to help you value your company and determine what your company’s worth and what you are entitled to at the end of the divorce process.
For assistance with your case, call 914-615-9058 to speak to our valuation attorney.
What Is Property Division in New York?
Property division is the process of diving property obligations and rights between spouses during the divorce process. Property division could be agreed upon between the divorcing parties through something known as a property settlement or could be decided in a court of law through a divorce proceeding.
The process is diving property in a divorce is generally affected by state laws such as definitions of marital contributions, community property laws, etc.
As an equitable distribution state, New York only considers and divides property that was acquired or bought during the involved party’s marriage. Some of the factors New York courts consider in a case involving property division include economic misconduct, contributions to a partner’s education, non-monetary contributions, and other issues defined by New York state laws.
How Do Marital Property Division Attorneys Determine Property Value?
As marital property division attorneys, we understand how important determining property value is to the fair distribution of assets during a divorce. When handling your case, the team at Douglas Family Law Group will take into consideration the following factors when determining property value.
- How much real estate does each of you own?
- How much tax you will have to pay on specific assets?
- What your children’s requirements are, and how many are involved?
- Your ability to earn enough cash to continue supporting yourself.
- How the separation affects your finances in the future.
- The value of the company or business you own with your spouse.
What Is the Process of Dividing the Property?
In New York, marital property is subject to equitable division, meaning assets should be divided fairly between each spouse. Below is a look at how property is distributed after a divorce in New York.
Identification of Debts and Assets
While debts and assets can be individually or jointly held, both of you are still required by law to declare or disclose what each of you owns. Debts and assets can include investments, real estate, retirement accounts, bank accounts, bonds, stocks, loans, vehicles, artwork, mortgages, annuities, furnishings, pensions, tax debts, and patents.
Classification of Property and Debts
Assets and debts are classified as marital or separate. Generally, assets acquired during the marriage are considered marital property. Separate property is what you owned before marriage.
If either spouse incurs a debt during the marriage and uses it to benefit the marriage, the court will divide the debt. An example is one spouse purchasing gifts for the kids on a credit card. However, a spouse who buys a gift for an ex is solely responsible for any debt.
Valuation
The value of marital assets and debts must be determined at the time of the divorce. Our divorce team can arrange to have things like your business or home appraised in case you and your spouse cannot agree on their value.
Distribution of Assets and Debts
The judge presiding over the case will do their best to split the marital assets or properties fairly, which doesn’t necessarily mean “equally,” between the divorcing couple. Factors taken into consideration can include the contributions of both spouses, if one party cheated, and more.
Contact an Experienced Marital Property Division Law Firm in Manhattan Today
The court in New York considers several variables while trying to determine how it’ll split assets equitably. Who is to blame for the breaking up of the marriage, your age, who gets custody of the children, how each of you makes money, etc., are some examples of things that’ll be considered.
To stand a better chance of fighting for your interests and everything you are entitled to, make sure you get in touch with a trusted Manhattan divorce lawyer from Douglas Family Law Group. As a New York family law firm, we have extensive knowledge and experience and understand how judges make their rulings.
If you need help with your case, Douglas Family Law Group can help. Call 914-615-9058 now to schedule a meeting with one of our divorce lawyers in Manhattan today.
