When Julie Chang filed for a divorce from her husband of 13 years, claiming cruelty, it took seven years for the New York courts to let her out of the marriage. According to Chang, those years cost her $40,000, and amounted to “judge-sanctioned harassment.”

“The process of trying to prove fault made an already bad relationship worse,” said Chang, a mother of two, in an article from the Boston Herald. “This whole seven-year process was simply about grounds.”

Now, the law that kept her from getting her divorce granted, the burden of proving
fault in New York State, could be overruled by lawmakers. Every other state in the U.S. has no-fault divorce, but in New York a judge can still only grant a divorce on the grounds of cruelty, adultery, abandonment or a three-year or more prison sentence. When both sides consent to the divorce, they can sign a separation agreement that grants a divorce after a year.

These laws, set in 1966, are now under threat from a bill in the state senate that would allow one spouse in a marriage to opt out of that marriage, just by swearing under oath that the marriage is irretrievably broken down and that it has been for at least six months. Under the new legislation, child support and custody, alimony and property division would need to be resolved already.

Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson, a Democrat representing the Bronx and co-sponsor of the bill, said that “the requirement of finding fault is often unfair to children and horrendous for victims of domestic violence trapped in abusive marriages with no way out without the consent of the abuser.”

The battle that the new legislation faces is far from a sure thing, however. Advocates for women’s rights have found themselves contending with advocates for victims of domestic violence. The National Organization for Women, for example, says that the bill would make it easier for judges to ignore documented cruelty cases, and make it easier for men with money to hide their assets and leave women poorer.

In a rare occurrence, the Catholic Church and NOW find themselves on the same side of the issue. That church cited the bad message that the bill might send to society, and to young people. “It says marriage is disposable. You can throw it away if it doesn’t work for you.”

NOW also says that judges can be gender biased, and that husbands with money can opt for a no-fault divorce and force wives without as much money into the court process, without money or legal recourse.

The bill passed the Democrat-led Senate in a vote of 32-29 last week, and will soon move to the state Assembly. Both Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Governor David Paterson said that they like the concept of the bill, but that they would not necessarily pass the bill if given the opportunity.

In New York, there were just over 127,000 marriages in the state in 2008, and over 52,000 divorces.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 28th, 2010 at 9:39 am and is filed under Divorce Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.