Co-Authored and published in the New York Law Journal
“New York is not all bricks and steel… It is the place where all the aspirations of the Western World meet to form one vast master aspiration…” – H.I. Mencken
After almost five years of battling amongst the sometimes warring factions of matrimonial and family law attorneys, and hard on the heels of attempts by the courts of this state to navigate the muddled waters created by the temporary maintenance guidelines [DRL S236(B)(5-)], the New York State Legislature passed a bill (A-7645; S 5678 of 2015) designed to bring clarity and consistency to the determination of temporary and for the first time, post-divorce maintenance awards in divorce and spousal support proceedings, while still providing the court with complete flexibility to exercise their discretion where strict application of these yet-to-be-tested guidelines would have an unfair result.