Long Island Contested Divorce: Temporary Relief from the Court

IN a contested divorce, if one of you requires temporary relief, such as financial support, temporary custody of children, exclusive use and occupancy of the marital residence, or any other immediate temporary relief, rather than working it out with your spouse the way you would in divorce mediation, you must bring that request to the attention of the court through a motion or an Order to Show Cause, which is a formal written application asking the Court to do what you want. It is not cheap and it is not fast.

Your spouse then has an opportunity to respond and, once all oppositions and other papers are submitted to the Court the divorce Court will then consider what everyone has said in writing.

Judges are very busy people and hope to avoid having to write a formal decision. So, the divorce court will ordinarily schedule a conference with both of you and both of your lawyers, to try to settle the issues in the motion without the divorce court having to make the decision. Getting to this point may take months — or longer — and you will certainly spend several thousand dollars. All so that you can do what you could have done immediately in divorce mediation — sit down face to face and settle the issues.

Typically, the Court will order that the status quo be maintained — if you have been paying all the bills the Court will ordinarily direct you to continue to do so. Sudden unemployment just prior to filing for divorce is seen as a ploy by judges — even if it is, in fact, not.

Judges are entirely unsympathetic to claims that “I can’t afford that much.”. This can often work to the disadvantage of the family earner and provider – more often than not, the husband.

Once there is a temporary support order, you have to pay it — like it or not, or able to pay it or not. On the other hand, the other spouse — more often than not the wife — may feel that the award is just too small and she cannot make it on that amount. Again, that is the number — live with it.

The reality is that, once you allow a Court into your lives, you have no further control over the outcome. A temporary support order can last for years –until the final disposition of the case by either settlement or trial.

Go back to Long Island Contested Divorce: How It Works to see the full list of topics about contested divorce.