Justice Robert A. Ross, of Nassau Supreme Court, has refused to award legal fees to the investment banker husband for his wife’s “stonewalling” and “manipulation” during their divorce proceeding. Mr. Molinari, in Molinari v. Molinari alleged that his wife’s tactics caused him to incur hundreds of thousands of dollars in unnecessary legal fees and he wanted her to pay for it.
Justice Ross found that, although Mrs. Molinari may have engaged in some “troubling” tactics, including some of the delay being the result of Mrs. Molinari’s contesting of grounds, Justice Ross held that granting Mr. Molinari’s bid to recover one half of his $832,000 in legal fees from his wife, who had been a stay-at-home Mom, raising the couple’s children while Mr. Molinari worked to support the family, would penalize the wife, as the “non-monied spouse,” for pursuing what she saw as an appropriate settlement, or for litigating grounds, which is entirely permissable under New York State law.
Moreover, in the final analysis, the Molinaris did enter into a fair settlement.
The litigation involved 17 motions, over 50 court appearances, and 17 days of trial. The combined legal fees exceeded $1.4 M (Yes, $1,400,000.00).
Justice Ross, citing the seminal case of O’Shea v. O’Shea, pointed out in his decision that Domestic Relations Law Section 237(a) gives judges the discretion to “make the more affluent spounse pay for the legal expenses of the needier one”, yet he did not award legal fees to the wife. He went on to cite O’Shea for the proposition that the award of fees is to redress economic disparities, not address one party’s decision to proceed to trial rather than settle.
What is my point?
The first is that litigation with a vengence can be extraordinarily expensive. What could have been the point?
The second is that, just because you think your spouse should pay your legal fees, does not mean it is going to happen. The Court is directed to make such a decision on economic grounds, based on the resources of the parties, and not on who is right or wrong or who prevails at trial. If you are intent on litigation, be prepared to pay for it.
Divorce mediation on Long Island is a far more effective strategy, less costly, less time-consuming, and less grief all around. In Molinari, the assets were distributed between the parties roughly equally, with some additional amount to the wife for a specific issue. The Wife received substantial maintenance for four years. All of that was predictable within a realistic set of paramaters. Yet the Molinaris spent almost one and a half million dollars fighting out their emotional positions in a court.
Don’t do it. Turn to a mediated solution.
