NY Divorce: How Long Does It Take, Does Mediation Work & When Should You Wait To File?

UPDATED: Jul 16, 2021

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UPDATED: Jul 16, 2021Fact Checked

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Jeffrey Johnson

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Jeffrey Johnson is a legal writer with a focus on personal injury. He has worked on personal injury and sovereign immunity litigation in addition to experience in family, estate, and criminal law. He earned a J.D. from the University of Baltimore and has worked in legal offices and non-profits in Maryland, Texas, and North Carolina. He has also earned an MFA in screenwriting from Chapman Univer...

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UPDATED: Jul 16, 2021

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It’s all about you. We want to help you make the right legal decisions.

We strive to help you make confident insurance and legal decisions. Finding trusted and reliable insurance quotes and legal advice should be easy. This doesn’t influence our content. Our opinions are our own.

Editorial Guidelines: We are a free online resource for anyone interested in learning more about legal topics and insurance. Our goal is to be an objective, third-party resource for everything legal and insurance related. We update our site regularly, and all content is reviewed by experts.

UPDATED: Jul 16, 2021

Advertiser Disclosure

It’s all about you. We want to help you make the right legal decisions.

We strive to help you make confident insurance and legal decisions. Finding trusted and reliable insurance quotes and legal advice should be easy. This doesn’t influence our content. Our opinions are our own.

UPDATED: Jul 16, 2021Fact Checked

How long does it take for a divorce to become final in New York, does mediation really work and should you wait to file if your spouse has just lost his or her job? These are questions that Elliot Schlissel, a New York Attorney whose practice area includes divorce, estate planning and many others, gets all the time. Here are his answers:

Question: How long does it take for a divorce to become final in New York?

Answer: If it is uncontested, meaning that both parties agree to the terms with regard to fault, distribution of property, support, maintenance, custody and visitation, it can be done in as little as two or three months. If the parties don’t agree and there is litigation, it can go on for a year’ and in some cases as long as two or three years. However, the courts now put pressure on the parties and their attorneys to try to resolve these matters as quickly as possible.

Question: Does divorce meditation really work?

Answer: Divorce mediation is an area that is being used by a fair amount of people in New York. It’s used in situations where the parties are not extremely hostile but do have some differences as to what they’re looking for on the issues of support, custody and maintenance and equitable distribution. We mediate disputes as an alternative to litigating the matters. It resolves the situation in many cases, although it’s certainly not 100 percent effective in every situation. It has to be the right type of case.

Question: Are you seeing couples wait to file for divorce until a spouse that has lost his or her job to get another?

Answer: Well, it depends on which side you’re on. If I’m representing a woman whose husband used to make $150,000 and is now receiving the equivalent of $20,000 a year in unemployment, I indicate to her it’s not a good time to get a divorce. We should wait until he’s employed because spousal maintenance and child support will be based on what he’s currently earning. If he’s only receiving unemployment, you’re not going to receive much.

On the other hand, if I represent the husband who is in an unhappy marriage and unemployed, there’s no reason for him to wait. I would suggest he move forward now with the divorce because it will be based on what he’s currently earning.

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Jeffrey Johnson

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Jeffrey Johnson is a legal writer with a focus on personal injury. He has worked on personal injury and sovereign immunity litigation in addition to experience in family, estate, and criminal law. He earned a J.D. from the University of Baltimore and has worked in legal offices and non-profits in Maryland, Texas, and North Carolina. He has also earned an MFA in screenwriting from Chapman Univer...

Insurance Lawyer

Editorial Guidelines: We are a free online resource for anyone interested in learning more about legal topics and insurance. Our goal is to be an objective, third-party resource for everything legal and insurance related. We update our site regularly, and all content is reviewed by experts.

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