N.Y. Moves Closer to No-Fault DivorceThe new legislation still has to pass the State Assembly, which is considering two bills that would include some version of no-fault divorce. But advocates said Tuesday that they believed that victory in the Senate, which was controlled by Republicans until last year, gave the measure momentum and a high likelihood of gaining approval in the Assembly, which is also controlled by Democrats.
Gov. David A. Paterson, a Democrat, is expected to support the bill if both houses of the Legislature approve it, although a spokesman cautioned that Mr. Paterson would need to review any final legislation before signing it.
.....
"What I'm hoping is that because the Assembly now has a partner in the Senate, that will give impetus to help the Assembly move along," Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson, a Democrat from Westchester and the Bronx who was the chief Senate sponsor of the bill, said after the vote.
And cue now the hordes of faux-MRA liberals with the litanty of rationalizations of how this is a good thing, and the G.O.P. is just as bad, no better, worse, worst, worser than worse, WORSETHANHITLER.
You want no-fault divorce? Here's how to do it right.
Divorce comes in more than one flavor. The first is the traditional fault-based divorce. Your spouse is abusive? A unwilling to reform addict? And adulterer? Sick in the head and unwilling to have treatment? Guilty of heinous crimes? Okay - prove it. And it is easier than it sounds. If you can prove bad behavior, the bad behavior counts against them for division of property, custody, etc.
Oh - False accusations are bad behavior.
The second is mutual agreement. The divorce agreement is up to you. You work out division of property, division of debt, custody, child support, maintenance, and all of that. Yo agree to forswear any further state involvement, to wit, any dispute of this down the road becomes a purely civil matter; the state will not intervene as an advocate, and you are responsible for litigating it.
The last is to walk out. That's it. Go. You get the clothes on your back, a change of clothes, your personal legal papers, half the debt, and a child support obligation, plus two years of spousal maintenance to be calulated by imputed income. That's it. And unless you can prove fault after the fact - you may never go to court to change the terms. Your visitation is fixed, and you do become the second class parent. You don't surrender parental rights to be informed, but your ex-partner makes all decisions.
Anything beyond this is a gift.
And if you disappear for more than a month, it is "Abandonment and cause for a fault-based divorce. Disappear for more than a year, and it is the second type of no-fault divorce.
Problem solved. Except that people become responsible for their own actions, and lawyers will lose business, there's no reason it shouldn't be law in all 50 states.
Won't do anything to reduce divorce now, but going forward it will make people think hard before getting married.
