Divorce proceeding, whether located in the US or abroad, are rarely pleasant experiences for those involved. That said, a number of legal developments in the past week have conspired to make divorce a slightly easier, and much fairer, process for all involved.
New York Awards Woman State’s First “No Fault Divorce”
An aged Long Island wife has been granted the state of New York’s first contested “no fault” divorce. The woman, who claimed that her 56 year marriage with her husband was “irretrievably broken”, received a divorce and half of the couple’s assets despite the fact that her husband had allegedly refused to give her a divorce, or commit grounds for a divorce, for the last 20 years.
The ruling is an application of a year-old “no fault” law, which previously has been used in amicable divorces, allowing couples to divorce without accusing each other of grounds of cruelty or abandonment. In Thailand, uncontested divorces are allowed if both spouses consent to the divorce, and no grounds are required.
British Courts Overturn Unfair Pre-nup
This week, a British judge deemed a pre-nuptial agreement signed ten years ago between Russian millionaire Boris Agrest and his British ex-wife “unfair”; the Russian High Court has therefore awarded Agrest’s ex-wife approximately half of his fortune, rather than the small fraction she would have been awarded by the prenuptial agreement. The court battle between the two parties commenced in 2007, after Agrest left his wife and allegedly vowed to leave her, as well as their three children, destitute. Although there has become an increasing trend of UK courts being more receptive to prenuptial agreements, this case has shown that British courts are still more than ready to strike down prenuptial agreements in cases of inequity.
Will “Amphur Administrative Divorces” Come to Texas?
On 26 January, Texas’s Supreme Court Justice Chief notified the Texas State Bar that work on creating uniform forms for divorce – move that would streamline many divorce proceedings in Texas, allowing couples with low funds to divorce without spending large sums on legal fees – would continue, despite protests from several family lawyers in the state. These parties allegedly felt that Texas family law was too complicated to condense into a single form.
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