What Does Senator D’Amato’s Divorce Teach Us

According to recent reports, the former U.S. Senator D’Amato has settled his divorce with his soon-to-be ex-wife Katuria D’Amato. Their divorce battle has been on-going for about two years and despite the Senator’s advanced age (he is 82 years old), there were two pre-teen children involved in the divorce.

Although, the details of their divorce are confidential, a few lessons can be learned from their divorce.

Lesson #1: In New York, all divorce pleadings and documents are confidential. Unlike most other court documents, divorce pleadings and any filed court documents are confidential. Only the parties and their respective attorneys are permitted to view any filed court documents. There are exceptions to this rule, but anyone seeking to obtain a court filed document must petition the court for permission to view the documents. However, those exceptions are very rare. Accordingly, you can be assured that your divorce documents are confidential.

Lesson #2: In the D’Amato’s divorce, the Judge first held a custody hearing. This is not unusual. Some Judges will want to have a custody hearing before considering the other issues involved in the divorce.  However, typically those custody hearings only result in a “temporary custody” ruling. Yet, regardless of whether the result is a temporary ruling, that result will have a great effect on the eventual decisions involve in the divorce. Accordingly, if there is going to be a custody battle, you want to be prepared to fight this battle from the onset of your divorce.

Lesson #3: Parties who have significant assets and money are the divorces that still take a long time to decide. We have all heard stories of divorces dragging on for years. For the most part, the Courts have made an effort to shorten the divorce process. However, the D’Amato divorce is the exception to the rule and still demonstrates that parties that have significant assets and money can spend the money to lengthen the divorce process.

If you are seeking a divorce, David Badanes, Esq. and the Badanes Law Office, P.C., can help you. Divorce attorney David Badanes has represented numerous clients in their divorces and can help you as well.

If you are thinking of getting divorced, please contact David Badanes and the Badanes Law Office, P.C. at (631) 430-4445 or email at david@dbnylaw.com. We have offices in Northport and Uniondale.

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