On behalf of Curt Arnel, Attorney at Law posted in Child Support on Friday, February 17, 2012
A multi-pronged program for collecting past-due child support in New York City allows custodial and noncustodial parents to receive help. The Office of Child Support Enforcement collected more than $730 million last year in delinquent child support payments. The amount equals more than $30 million, or nearly 4.5 percent above 2010 support collections of $700 million.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that overdue support collections from non-paying parents increased by more than half during his 10-year political term, up 53 percent since 2002. An average of $4,000 was added to child support received by New York custodial parents in 2011 through the efforts of the enforcement agency. The bulk of the retroactive support payments were harnessed through wage garnishment of noncustodial parents.
On behalf of Curt Arnel, Attorney at Law posted in Child Custody on Sunday, February 12, 2012
Child custody disputes are difficult for any parents involved in a divorce or separation. Coming to terms with not seeing a child on a daily basis is heartbreaking for each parent involved. A recent story about a same-sex couple's child custody dispute may be of interest for Brooklyn residents. As more same-sex couples opt for marriage, ultimately some of those relationships will end in divorce. The problem lies in the existing language used to define a married couple by the state, when that marriage is being dissolved and child custody is being disputed.
The divorce of a same-sex female couple prompted a child custody dispute between them. The woman who gave birth to the child wanted to exclude her ex-spouse from the child's life, based on a state law that uses the terms "married woman" and "husband" to define the people in a marriage.
On behalf of Curt Arnel, Attorney at Law posted in Child Support on Sunday, February 5, 2012
Divorce agreements in Brooklyn can include provisions for ex-spouses and child custody, including how much and how long spousal or child support is paid. Beyond alimony and child support considerations, matrimonial lawyers suggest that divorce settlements include how parents will cope with the costs of their children's college education.
If children are young at the time of their parent's divorce, expenses associated with post-secondary education easily can be overlooked. The issue can become contentious much later when the end of mandatory child support often coincides with the start of a college education.
On behalf of Curt Arnel, Attorney at Law posted in Divorce on Sunday, January 29, 2012
A New York court has declared that a 37-year-old Long Island woman can keep the spousal support she has, but will not receive more. The family-law case might have gone unnoticed in the media if the woman had not claimed she married a second man before she divorced the first.
Court records say the woman received a sum of $60,000 each year in spousal maintenance payments from her first husband. The couple married 17 years ago and had four children.
On behalf of Curt Arnel, Attorney at Law posted in Divorce on Sunday, January 22, 2012
A marital separation traditionally was used to reevaluate the future of a marriage or set the stage for a divorce. Family-law experts are seeing a trend among married couples wishing to split which may interest residents here in New York -- legal separation without divorce.
Experts say some couples choose to separate physically while retaining the legal and financial benefits of a marriage. Money is not the only reason a couple chooses to stay married and live apart, but it can factor into the decision to avoid divorce.
On behalf of Curt Arnel, Attorney at Law posted in Divorce on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
New York residents take note; the last day of any year is the most significant for tax filing status. The married or unmarried state of an individual on December 31 determines how a taxpayer files with the Internal Revenue Service.
It does not matter to federal tax officials whether a person's divorce decree is issued at the beginning or end of a year. For IRS purposes, the marriage or divorce status of an individual on the year's final day counts as the person's filing status for the entire tax year.
On behalf of Curt Arnel, Attorney at Law posted in Child Custody on Sunday, January 15, 2012
Traditional child custody agreements not only here in New York, but elsewhere throughout the country, have generally used boiler plate language memorializing alternate weekends and rotating holiday schedules for custodial and non-custodial parents' visitation schedules. Now, in recent years, the newest co-parenting agreements map out more than just days and dates of visitation. Parenting plans now often address long-term plans for education and religious practices.
A child's religious upbringing can be a sore point, especially between divorcing parents of separate faiths. A divorced couple with divergent faiths may set down a pattern of acceptable and unacceptable religious practices for kids. The agreement may include or exclude holiday celebrations like Christmas or Hanukkah. A custody agreement can even lay out if and how a child will celebrate a confirmation or bar mitzvah, even down to the finer details of which parent is responsible for the cost of such an event.
On behalf of Curt Arnel, Attorney at Law posted in Child Custody on Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Whenever family issues enter the legal arena, emotions are bound to run high. This is especially true when the stakes are elevated by complex immigration issues. These are the high stakes in a child custody case facing a family in Queens.
The family's story begins in 2006 with the birth of the couple's daughter in their native Mexico. Shortly thereafter, the baby girl's father illegally crossed into the United States. The daughter joined him later with the aid of smugglers that he paid to transport the girl. It was the couple's dream that they would be able to provide a better life for their daughter by raising her in the United States.
On behalf of Curt Arnel, Attorney at Law posted in Family Law on Saturday, December 31, 2011
A surge of holiday engagements for happy couples in New York and elsewhere throughout the country is a common trend during the month of December. However, it was recently reported that 6 percent fewer American adults are married today than were married in 2000. A Pew Research Center report states 51 percent of adults are married compared to 57 percent just over a decade ago. Whether the numbers spell eventual doom for the institution of marriage or reflect a societal blip are subjects of speculation among societal observers.
Some analysts think today's couples have not abandoned marriage, but are deferring plans to commit after witnessing the divorces of their own parents. Some experts say couples want to take extra time to be certain they have chosen the right partner to avoid divorce difficulties like asset division, alimony and child custody battles.
On behalf of Curt Arnel, Attorney at Law posted in Divorce on Thursday, December 22, 2011
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation is a little-known but highly-used federal organization that legal experts say can impact an end-of-marriage agreement, even after all the divorce dust has settled. PBGC is a government backup for canceled, qualified pension plans.
If a business files for bankruptcy, the first bill a company terminates is often a pension plan. PBGC's job is to provide a sort of insurance for those affected by a pension plan. Federal officials say PBGC is losing money, which can mean across-the-board changes in divorce settlements that contain pension agreements.
