Westchester Divorce Blog

It used to be all the rage for couples wanting to dissolve their marriage to hop on a plane and fly to Mexico to get a quickie divorce.  The Mexican government has changed the law and now no one flies to Mexico for a divorce.  The lightning fast divorce country currently in vogue is the Dominican Republic.  But like most things that promise speed, you need to read the fine print and understand the possible pitfalls.

The laws in the Dominican Republic seem clear enough – they waive requirements including residency and waiting periods those seeking divorce, including foreigners.  Only one party need attend the hearing in Santo Domingo, and whoosh, in 24 hours you too can join the legions of the divorced.  The non-attending spouse can sign a special power of attorney form to be represented by a local attorney

The Dominican Republic is a pretty short plane ride away from the East Coast, and close to the US Virgin Islands.  Seems like an ideal solution to those seeking to quickly sever legal ties with a spouse, right?

Not so fast.  First of all, these types of divorces are usually very simple ones, without complications.  If you and your spouse have a decent sized marital estate and you do not agree completely on how it should be divided, going overseas isn’t going to work.

Another problem is that the United States Supreme Court has ruled that all unilateral foreign divorces, where only one party signs the paperwork, are invalid.

Therefore, your best chance of getting a fairly quick divorce is to proceed through collaborative law, mediation, or old-fashioned negotiations.  In this way, you can find common ground and move on with the rest of your post-divorced life, without having to worry that your quickie divorce may not be worth the paper it is written on. 

October 26th 2008 Posted to General, Uncategorized
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The issue of personal property is one that couples often spend countless hours – and thousands of dollars – arguing over.  Things such as lamps, rugs, even old CDs and baseball cards, seem to have an emotional pull on couples dividing up their assets 

An interesting case decided in Oregon recently concerned which spouse owned frozen embryos that had never been implanted in the wife during the course of the marriage.  Both former spouses were medical professionals, the wife a pediatrician, and her ex-husband an orthodontist.  He wanted to donate the embryos to couples that might want them and she wanted them destroyed.  The couple’s earlier agreement on this issue prevailed, and the embryos were ultimately destroyed.

This personal property case certainly had more emotional issues than deciding who gets the living room lamp, but it does raise some interesting points.  So let’s outline some of the ways to determine the ownership of personal property:

- Personal property owned by you prior to marriage is your separate property and there is no lingering legal question about it. Make sure to identify any such items to your attorney so that they may be identified as your separate property in your stipulation of settlement.

- Gifts to you during your marriage from third parties are likewise your separate property.

- Gifts to you during the marriage from your spouse is marital property and subject to equitable distribution.

- The wife’s engagement ring deserves special mention: it becomes her separate property the moment the parties get married.  However, any other gifts of jewelry from one spouse to the other during the marriage is marital property.

- Property that you accumulate after the date of commencement of the divorce action (when the summons is filed) belongs to you and is not subject to distribution.

When in doubt, ask your attorney. 

October 19th 2008 Posted to Uncategorized
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Every divorce is different.  Every client who has walked through our doors has been a unique individual, with circumstances unlike any other client, and, therefore everyone in our practice is considered special and distinctive.

That being said, there is one common thread that we have noticed and it’s something very obvious but often overlooked.  Put everything on the table from the outset.  Don’t leave anything out that you want or that you think is or might be important in the coming days, months, and yes, even years.  Vacations, schooling, medical choices, relocating, a significant other, even getting a new dog, all of these issues should be discussed with your attorney from the very beginning.  Doing so will remove a lot of the hassle and heartbreak that roils through many divorces.

Like all of you, we sometimes shake our heads at the stories we read in the papers about celebrity divorces and all they entail.  But we don’t laugh when we read about one former marital partner or the other feeling they are not receiving all they are entitled to because they didn’t ask for something while hammering out an agreement.  Or they agreed to something they shouldn’t have because they were caught up in the moment and didn’t always consider the consequences.  That’s why we say, “Put everything on the table from the outset.”

September 13th 2008 Posted to Uncategorized
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A court-appointed psychiatrist’s report yet to be introduced in the sensational Christie Brinkley-Peter Cook divorce trial will reveal that Brinkley is consumed by rage, Cook’s attorney said late last week in a television interview.  But as lawyers for the two sides traded charges in exclusive TODAY interviews, the supermodel’s attorney said that the report also says that Brinkley should get primary custody of the couple’s two children.

The psychiatrist “has … found that Christie is angered and she’s going to have to overcome her anger,” Cook’s attorney, Norman Sheresky, told TODAY’s Meredith Vieira before heading to court for the second day of testimony in the salacious trial that began Wednesday.

Sheresky said that the psychiatrist also determined that testimony about Cook’s $3,000-a-month appetite for Internet porn should be “out of the case,” and that “Peter is a wonderful father. He should have a relationship with the children, and Christie Brinkley should not interfere with it.”

But in a separate interview that followed directly on TODAY, Brinkley’s attorney, Bob Cohen, said his adversary left out an important element in the report. “The court psychiatrist found that Christie should be the custodial parent,” he told Vieira. “But being the custodial parent doesn’t mean Peter doesn’t get to see the children. He’s going to get to see the children. He has seen the children. He will continue to see the children.”

See the interview with the two lawyers here.

Cook sought to keep the salacious trial private, but Brinkley fought to make open to the public and the media. Sheresky said that Brinkley is driven by anger and that her determination to air the couple’s dirty laundry will ultimately harm their children.

I do believe that this trial offers at least two important lessons for everyone facing divorce in New York:

1.            Custody trials are nasty affairs, not only for celebrities, but also for anyone else going through a divorce.  They rip families apart and should be avoided, if at all possible, for the sake of the children. Don’t be shortsighted.  You have to co-parent with your spouse once the case is over.  Think of the years to come – the graduations, weddings, Holidays, and grandchildren in your family’s future.  Both Cook and Brinkley have talented, experienced counsel.  This case could and should have settled quietly out of court.

2.            There is a difference between “custody” and “visitation.”  The fact that Christie Brinkley is asking the Court for sole custody does not mean that she wants to keep Peter Cook from seeing the children.  This misconception has been widely reported in the media and is being perpetuated by the Cook camp.  Sole legal custody simply means that, should she win, Brinkley will have the right to make important decisions on the children’s behalf with regard to their medical care, education, religious upbringing, and general welfare.  But part and parcel of any custody order of the Court will be a parental access schedule granting the non-custodial parent frequent and meaningful access time with the children. 

July 07th 2008 Posted to Celebrity Divorce, Custody and Visitation, Uncategorized
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We are Willem and Margaretha Gravett, and we are the founding partners of Gravett & Gravett, a husband-and-wife boutique law firm focusing on matrimonial and family law.

We want the best for your family, just as we do for our own.

Our law firm is different from the “traditional” Westchester matrimonial law firms in the following ways:

·      No hourly fees – When we billed by the hour, our clients wanted everything done with as little communication as possible – for fear of the bill they would receive.  We want to hear from our clients and we want to answer their questions.  So, we threw out the time clocks.  Nothing we do is billed on an hourly basis.  We work on a fixed fee, agreed-upon in advance, so that there are never any surprises.

·      Secure client extranet – We provide consistent, proactive updates to our clients via our secure client extranet.  Our clients have 24/7 access to all the documents, important dates, and the status of their cases.  They enjoy the peace of mind of knowing exactly what is going on – in real time.

·      Your Personal Family Lawyers™ for life – We see our clients’ divorce cases as the beginning of our relationship, not as one-time transactional events.  We value being our clients’ trusted advisors for life.  After their divorces, we also help them to get their estate plans in order so that they can transfer their whole wealth – their financial, intellectual, and spiritual assets – to their loved ones.

At Gravett & Gravett, our clients are at the core of everything we do.

One of the ways in which we want to demonstrate our commitment to client care and service excellence is to reach out to the Westchester community through this blog. 

We know that divorce or separation can have a devastating impact on your family relationships and finances for the rest of your life.  The decisions that you make now will be critically important to your children, your finances, and your future.   

The purpose of the Westchester Divorce Blog is to provide you with helpful information as you navigate through this painful process, and to alleviate the stress, anxiety, and confusion inherent in divorce, custody, and other matrimonial and family law matters.

June 09th 2008 Posted to Uncategorized
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