Spousal Maintenance: Confronting the Emotion
March 29, 2004
In negotiations, as in mediation, many divorce attorneys find spousal maintenance to be one of the most difficult areas of conflict to resolve. This may be because spousal support often represents something entirely different for each spouse, and for each couple: Is maintenance meant to compensate for pain and hurt when the other party is leaving the marriage or having an affair? Is maintenance required to reimburse one party for past contributions to the career of the other party or to the family? Is maintenance viewed as an entitlement to one party or a source of guilt or failure to another? Was spousal support part of the "social contract" created within the family, which determined that one parent would stay home with children? Or were the parties never able to agree on such a social contract in the family during the marriage but one parent stayed home anyway? Is maintenance a source of anger because the receiving spouse is not working to his or her full "potential"?
Gay Marriage Pushed to the Forefront By Activist Mayor
March 29, 2004
After a prolonged silence on the increasingly charged national issue of same-sex marriage, New Yorkers finally entered the fray in February. It all began, of course, when New Paltz mayor Jason West, a 26-year-old who ran for mayor last year on the Green Party ticket, became the first elected official in New York State to preside over the marriage of a gay couple. None of the couples were issued marriage licenses, a prerequisite to marriage under state law. On that first day, February 27, West married 25 couples in the Village Hall parking lot.
QDROs for Enforcement Purposes
March 29, 2004
As matrimonial practitioners, we are often confronted with the problem of enforcing either pendente lite or post-judgment awards of support, equitable distribution and counsel fees. Perhaps one of the most overlooked enforcement tools is the Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO). While QDROs are used routinely to distribute all kinds of qualified deferred compensation benefits, they are also available for enforcement purposes.
The 'Doctrine of Necessity': Missing Authority
March 24, 2004
<i>Nothing ... in the Code covers payments made to pre-existing, unsecured creditors, whether or not the debtor calls them 'critical.' Judges do not invent missing language ... A 'doctrine of necessity' is just a fancy name for a power to depart from the Code. In re Kmart Corp.</i>, 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 3397, *5, *11 (7th Cir. Feb. 24, 2004) (Easterbrook, J.)
Tactics for Defending Preference Actions
March 24, 2004
In a troubled business climate, a scenario all too often occurs wherein a once steady and reliable customer becomes delinquent in payment and eventually files for bankruptcy protection. In this common situation, your client's good customer becomes a debtor and your client becomes one of many creditors jockeying to recover a small portion of its investment. To make matters worse, your client receives a letter from the debtor or court appointed trustee demanding repayment of a pre-petition preferential payment pursuant to section 547(b) of the Bankruptcy Code (the Code).
