New York's No Fault Divorce Law

Effective this week, New Yorkers seeking a divorce, no longer have to deal with the cumbersome and awkward causes of action for divorce such as abandonment, constructive abandonment, adultery or cruel and inhuman treatment. The statement from Governor Patterson can be viewed here. These antiquated causes of action imposed costly litigation on a spouse whose partner refused to accede to an amicable divorce. It also placed litigants in the awkward position of having to lie under oath, when the divorce was amicable, that one party had abandoned the other, even when that was not the case. It is clearly refreshing to see the legislature taken a more civilized view of divorce so that the painful process of separation need not be further complicated.