New York divorce guide: process, requirements, and laws

You want to know what this will cost, how long it will take, and whether you get to keep the apartment. New York answers all three, but it answers them in an order that surprises people: the divorce itself is the last thing that happens, not the first.

That one fact shapes everything below. This guide works through it from New York's own statutes and court forms, section by section, and hands off to a fuller chapter each time.

How does divorce work in New York?

Four rules set the shape of it:

• Only the Supreme Court can end a marriage. New York's Supreme Court is its trial court, and the Divorce FAQs are blunt about it: a Supreme Court judge is the only person who can legally grant a divorce. Family Court handles support, custody, visitation, and paternity, and cannot divorce you.

• Residency is a menu, not a single number. Section 230 gives five routes in. Two years of residence always works. One year works if you were married here, lived here as a married couple, or the grounds arose here. And if you both live in New York and the grounds arose here, there is no waiting period at all.

• No-fault is not automatic. Section 170(7) lets one spouse swear the relationship has been broken irretrievably for six months, and then blocks the judgment until property, spousal support, child support, counsel and expert fees, and custody are all resolved or decided and written into the judgment.

• Equitable, which does not mean equal. Section 236(B)(5) tells the court to sort separate property from marital property, leave the separate property alone, and distribute the marital property equitably on sixteen listed factors. There is no starting presumption of a 50/50 split.

Everything below is the detail.

Step 1: Can you file for divorce in New York?

How long do you have to live in New York to file for divorce?

It depends which route you use, and the shortest one is no time at all. If you and your spouse both live in New York on the day you start the case and the grounds arose here, section 230 lets you file immediately. Otherwise you are looking at one year plus a connection to the state, or two years with no connection needed.

Nobody has a county waiting period to worry about. You file in the Supreme Court in the county where you or your spouse lives.

→ Complete guide: New York divorce residency requirements and who can file

What are the grounds for divorce in New York?

Seven of them, and six are fault or separation based. Cruel and inhuman treatment, abandonment for a year, imprisonment for three consecutive years, adultery, six months apart under a separation decree, and six months apart under a written separation agreement.

The seventh, added in 2010, is the one almost everybody uses, and understanding what it does and does not get you is worth ten minutes.

→ Complete guide: New York divorce grounds and how no-fault actually works

How long does a divorce take in New York?

An uncontested case that both spouses want can finish in about three months. A contested one runs a year or more, and the court rules put real markers on the calendar: the Request for Judicial Intervention within 45 days of service, the preliminary conference within 45 days of that, and discovery closing six months after the conference.

What actually decides your timeline is whether the economic issues are settled, because the no-fault ground will not produce a judgment until they are.

→ Complete guide: How long a New York divorce takes and what happens at each stage

Step 2: How do you file for divorce in New York?

How do you file for divorce in New York?

You buy an index number at the county clerk's office for $210 and file either a Summons with Notice or a Summons and Verified Complaint. Add $95 for the Request for Judicial Intervention and $30 for the note of issue and you are at $335 in court fees for an uncontested case.

New York publishes a free forms packet for people without lawyers, and there is a separate, simpler packet for spouses who want to file together.

→ Complete guide: How to file for divorce in New York, step by step

How do you serve divorce papers in New York?

By personally handing them to your spouse, which is the default and is harder to get around than most people expect. You have 120 days from filing to get it done, and if you miss that window the court must dismiss the case on motion unless it extends the time.

Anything other than personal delivery needs the court's permission first.

→ Complete guide: Serving divorce papers in New York and the 120 day deadline

What are the automatic orders in a New York divorce?

A set of five restrictions plus a notice duty that bind the plaintiff the moment the summons is filed and the defendant the moment the orders are served. They stop you selling or moving assets, touching retirement accounts, running up unreasonable debt, and dropping anyone from health or life insurance.

They are court orders, not suggestions, and most people are already violating one before they read them.

→ Complete guide: New York automatic orders and what they freeze

Step 3: How is money divided in a New York divorce?

How is property divided in a New York divorce?

The court separates marital from separate, then divides the marital property equitably. The definitions do most of the work: anything either of you acquired during the marriage is marital regardless of whose name is on it, and separate property includes what you brought in, inheritances, gifts from anyone but your spouse, and personal injury awards.

The seam between the two categories is where the fights happen, especially when separate property appreciated because of the other spouse's effort.

→ Complete guide: New York equitable distribution and how marital property is divided

What is a statement of net worth in a New York divorce?

A sworn, notarized inventory of everything you earn, own, owe, and spend, and it is the spine of every financial argument in the case. It is due within 20 days of a written demand, and it has to list every asset you transferred in the last three years.

That three year lookback is the part worth reading twice.

→ Complete guide: The New York statement of net worth and what it requires

How is spousal maintenance calculated in New York?

By formula, up to an income cap of $241,000 of the payor's income. Which formula depends on whether child support is also being paid and who the custodial parent is, and the answer is the lower of two numbers rather than a single calculation.

Duration comes from an advisory schedule tied to the length of the marriage, running from 15 percent of it at the short end to 50 percent at the long end.

→ Complete guide: New York spousal maintenance formula, caps, and duration

Step 4: How do custody and child support work in New York?

How does a judge decide custody in New York?

On the best interests of the child, with no presumption favoring either parent and no presumption of joint custody. Section 240 gives the court discretion and then requires it to take proven domestic violence into account and say on the record how that shaped the decision.

New York splits custody into legal and physical, and they do not have to go to the same parent.

→ Complete guide: New York child custody and how judges decide it

How is child support calculated in New York?

Both parents' incomes are combined, multiplied by a flat percentage set by the number of children, and split between the parents in proportion to what each earns. One child is 17 percent, two is 25, three is 29, four is 31, and five or more is at least 35.

The percentages apply to combined income up to $193,000, and support runs until the child turns 21, not 18.

→ Complete guide: New York child support guidelines and the income cap

Step 5: Which kind of New York divorce are you in?

What is an uncontested divorce in New York?

One where your spouse consents, defaults, or has already signed an agreement with you. New York gives you three ways through it: the free uncontested packet, the online DIY program for couples with no children under 21 and everything already settled, and a joint divorce where you file together instead of one of you suing the other.

The joint route is the newest and the least known.

→ Complete guide: Uncontested and joint divorce in New York

What happens in a contested divorce in New York?

A judge gets assigned, the calendar tightens, and the case moves through a preliminary conference, a compliance conference, discovery, and a trial, all on deadlines written into the court rules. There is no jury on the economic issues.

The preliminary conference is the meeting that sets everything else, and you walk in with your statement of net worth already filed.

→ Complete guide: Contested divorce in New York, from the RJI to trial

Is mediation required for divorce in New York?

Not by statute, but many courts will steer you toward it, and the arithmetic of the no-fault ground makes settlement the fast road. A judgment cannot be entered until the money and the children are worked out, so the couples who settle finish first.

→ Complete guide: New York divorce mediation and settlement agreements

What changes in a high-asset New York divorce?

Once there is a business, deferred compensation, or a separate estate that got tangled with marital money, the case turns into an argument about classification, valuation dates, and tracing. New York lets the court pick any valuation date between commencement and trial for each asset separately, which in a volatile year is worth more than most of the other factors combined.

New York also refuses to treat a professional license or degree as distributable property, and then tells the court to weigh the other spouse's contribution to it anyway.

→ Complete guide: High-asset divorce in New York: valuation, tracing, and business interests

Where should you start with a New York divorce?

If you are still deciding:

1. Work out which of the five residency routes you actually fit, because one of them needs no waiting at all

2. Read what the no-fault ground does and does not do before you assume a six month wait ends this

3. Understand how the property rules sort what you own before you agree to any split

If your case is already filed:

• Read the automatic orders today, because they are already binding on you and violating one is contempt

• Start building your statement of net worth now, since 20 days from a demand is not enough time to gather three years of records

• If you have children, read the custody standard and the support guideline together, since the custodial designation changes both numbers

New York gives you formulas for the money and discretion for the children, and it will not end the marriage until both are settled. The people who finish quickly are the ones who treat the financial disclosure as the main event rather than a chore.