Family and Domestic Partnership

Going to Family Law Court can be a bit daunting because it is very serious.  It’s one thing to be fighting about money in a business context, which doesn’t involve, or typically does not involve, emotions to such an extent that family law matters evoke, although emotions do find their way into business matters too. When we are dealing with family law matters, by definition, we are dealing with love.  And as we all know, love is the strongest of emotions. and when you are dealing with the strongest of emotions, and it is in a very positive light, for instance, when you are dealing with a new relationship, and new found feelings, it is, or it can be, absolute bliss. However, and this is a very big however, the inverse is also entirely true. This means that as strong as the emotions were in the beginning, they are equally strong if not stronger at the end. And what I mean by the end, is when a relationship is over, and it ends, and love is lost. Love having been lost is a very big issue, particularly because emotions emotions run very very high. When you add children to the mix, and money to the mix, and housing to the mix, and professions to the mix, and friendships to the mix, and relatives to the mix, it can be a recipe for unmitigated disaster, that a good family attorney New York NY should know how to handle.

There are a lot of issues that come up in family law and domestic relations matters. These issues include how to divide assets. When we are talking about assets, there can be a number of them, including artwork, automobiles, housing, land, jewelry, precious metals, and so on.  The question typically arises, who gets the assets now that the romantic relationship friendship and perhaps cohabitation is ending?  Is it Community property? Is it jointly owned property?  Was it owned by one partner at the beginning of the relationship, and is it owned by the other now? Or is it owned by both of them now? Was there a gift during this process? Of course another major asset is cash and money in the bank account.  Are there joint bank accounts?  Are there separate bank accounts but do funds belong to one partner versus another because it is funds based on money borrowed or advanced? Family attorney New York NY know about these things.

Of course another very big issue is if there are children involved, who is the parent that is primarily responsible for the day-to-day care of that child?  What is the custody?  Is it joint custody?  Is it sole custody?  Is it a custody arrangement where one parent has supervised visits?  Are there child support obligations?

In the planning stage, before getting into a relationship, there are questions that arise or can arise as to one party protecting themselves against the other party.  This is what’s been commonly referred to as a prenuptial agreement.  Prenuptial by its own definition refers to a situation before a wedding that’s nuptials.  However there are also situations where people get together romantically and either party can make sacrifices such as leaving a job or leaving a city or leaving a family or leaving an area or leaving a person and they want to have some sort of security that they’re making the right move and if they break up in the future that they will be protected. We have seen agreements here that involve these types of situations where there is not a wedding (nuptial) involved, if there is a breakup typically it’s the man that pays the woman or agrees to pay the woman in the event of a breakup and the woman moves.

There is intersection with other areas of law as well.  For instance if the couple is involved in business deals together or running a business together. Another situation where this often arises is in the context of real estate law where perhaps before they get married or even if they don’t get married they join the owner property, one of the questions that may arise is what type of tenancy is it?  This is where family attorney New York NY can and should also have some familiarity with other areas of the law, or at least regular contact with those who do.

Of course when people are getting involved in a new relationship, particularly younger people, or less experienced people, and this is very similar with business partnerships as well, they tend to discount the importance of the question, well what happens if we split in the future?  What happens if things don’t go as planned?  What happens if something happens that is unexpected in the context of the relationship for instance if they bring in another person whether consensually or not and somebody else gets involved? Very few people like to think about it, never mind get into some sort of a written agreement or a discourse about a written agreement to provide a guideline of how things are to be wound down if and to the extent that happens.

I’m aware of people having gotten so embittered by the process or by relationships or by the prospect of having their heart broken again that they will not ever expose themselves again whether emotionally, spiritually, or financially to the influence of a romantic partner.  While that is not the way that I personally would want to conduct my life, I do understand that there is a substantial amount of pain that can be caused in the context of breakups and the process of the court system is far from pleasant, particularly where there is a contested matter, property to divide, and children to protect.  Even so, my personal view is that love trumps all and just because someone didn’t get it right in the first place, probably to no fault of their own, doesn’t mean that they can’t get it right the second, third, fourth, fifth or even 10th time. This doesn’t mean when your rights have been trampled, to just walk away (I’ve seen that too.)  Instead, fight if you want, and we are here to fight for you and your entitlements.  We at The Lawyer James are certainly here to help and you can reach us at 212-500-1891, 24/7 there is somebody available to take your call and schedule an appointment with a family attorney New York NY.