We recently surveyed our readers in New York to find out about their experiences with divorce. Here’s what we found out.
According to our survey results, the average New York divorce costs $17,100, including $13,500 in attorney’s fees. That’s 34% higher than the national average of $12,800 in total divorce costs, including $10,000 in attorney’s fees.
After attorney's fees, the rest of the total cost of a divorce comes from expenses, which includes fees for things like court filings, mediation, and the cost of copying and serving documents. Expenses also include compensation for expert witnesses and consultants, such as child custody evaluators, appraisers, or financial analysts. Average expenses in New York divorces were $3,600.
The average hourly rate that attorneys charge in New York is $325. But our readers reported a wide fluctuation in their divorce lawyers’ hourly rates—some were charged as little as $100 an hour, while others paid as much as $650 an hour.
Below, we’ll take a closer at some of the factors that may affect the cost of divorce in the Empire State.
While the average cost of divorce in New York is relatively low, no fault divorces and divorces that end up in divorce court will take longer.
The most expensive type of divorce in New York is one involving children. When a New York divorce involved child custody and support issues, the average cost was $25,600, including $21,700 in attorney’s fees. Compare these numbers to divorces without children in New York, where the average cost dropped to $16,700, including $12,300 in attorney’s fees.
When you file the initial paperwork, you have to list a reason, or “ground,” for your divorce. In New York, you can choose a no-fault or a fault divorce. In a no-fault divorce, neither spouse assigns blame for the break up. Instead, you’ll simply state that your marriage has been “irretrievably broken” for at least six months, which means there’s no reasonable chance you and your spouse can reconcile.
If you request a fault divorce in New York, you’re telling the court that you believe your spouse caused the split based on one of more the following:
Unlike some states, in New York, judges don’t have to consider fault-based conduct when making decisions about alimony or property. New York family law courts making alimony and property awards will consider bad acts during the marriage only if the behavior was particularly egregious or if it harmed the couples’ finances. For example, if a cheating spouse wasted a large amount of money on hotels, airfare, or gifts for a paramour, then a court may order that spouse to reimburse those funds or pay a greater amount of spousal support. For more information, see Adultery in New York: Does Cheating Affect Alimony?
Adultery won’t typically affect child custody decisions, but abuse, abandonment, or incarceration may. For more information on fault and custody issues, see How Domestic Violence Affects Child Custody in New York.
Once you allege adultery, or any other type of fault-based behavior, you also have to prove it with evidence that a judge finds both admissible and compelling, which will increase your fees and costs. Your attorney will probably hire a private investigator to track or trail your spouse, take photographs of any rendezvous, and conduct online searches on online dating or singles sites. All of this time and effort costs money.
Attorney time is billed by the hour, so your total fee will quickly skyrocket if you pursue a fault divorce. You should consider very carefully whether this time, effort, stress, and money will be worth it in the end. Many attorneys will advise their clients to avoid a fault divorce, unless it’s absolutely necessary—and it usually isn’t.
The most expensive type of divorce in New York is one that goes to trial. If your case is headed to trial, your attorney will need to spend additional hours preparing for a courtroom battle. Trial preparation typically includes:
Your attorney (and possibly a team of associates, paralegals, or assistants) will also need to prepare trial exhibits to present in court. Once the trial begins, your attorney will work full days, presenting your case to the judge, making objections, submitting evidence, and examining witnesses. In the evenings, your attorney will revisit and possibly revise trial strategy, depending on what the other side brought up in court.
All of this work is billed at your attorney’s usual hourly rate, or in some cases, an increased fee for litigation. It’s easy to see why costs and fees usually skyrocket once a case goes into trial mode.
According to our survey, the average divorce in New York takes 9.5 months resolve—lower than the 11-month national average. Our New York readers reported a range of 4 months to 24 months to complete their divorce cases.
New York doesn’t have a mandatory post-filing waiting period, which may explain why the average time it takes to divorce in New York is lower than the national average. However, divorces where child custody and/or child support are issues take longer because of psychological evaluations, court-ordered studies, and financial questions. In New York, divorce with kids took an average of almost 18 months to complete (without kids, the average divorce in New York took 9 months).
Similarly, fault divorces take longer because of more discovery and investigation and because it takes more time in court proving issues of fault to the judge. Indeed, all divorces that go to trial take longer; divorcing couples who went to trial in New York waited an average of 24 months to finalize their divorces compared to 11 months for cases that settled.
New York does have a simplified divorce process, which is referred to as “uncontested divorce,” but not too many couples qualify for it. In order to be eligible for this expedited divorce track, all of the following must be true:
Child support calculator
http://www1.nyc.gov/site/hra/help/child-support-calculator.page
Child support enforcement agency
https://www.childsupport.ny.gov/dcse/home.html
New York divorce info from Divorcenet
http://www.divorcenet.com/states/new_york
General information and forms
http://nycourts.gov/CourtHelp/Family/divorce.shtml
