Legal Blackmail

Getting divorced? Help yourself to a bigger piece of the marital pie via legal blackmail, courtesy of the New York State Legislature. Let me explain.

New York has some of the most restrictive divorce laws in the country when it comes to grounds for divorce. There is no such thing as "irreconcilable differences" or anything remotely similar in New York. In New York, we do it the old fashioned way. The party wanting the divorce, typically the plaintiff, must prove "fault" to obtain a divorce. But what happens when there is no "fault" as defined by the Legislature? What if the parties are just miserable, or grew apart, or frequently argue?

This is where the blackmail comes in. If the requisite legal fault cannot be proven, the other side can blackmail the plaintiff by resisting the divorce unless the financial terms are made more favorable. If the plaintiff does not want to pay the blackmail, he or she will have to have a trial on grounds for divorce, a who-did-what-to-whom free for all that may result in a judge ruling that proper legal grounds have not been proven, and the parties have to stay married. Many opt to pay the blackmail.

This sad state of affairs is the result of the New York Legislature's continued inability to enact a no fault divorce law, something every other state in the U.S. seems to be able to do. Until a no fault divorce law is enacted, the legal blackmail will undoubtedly continue.