Elliott Scheinberg

September 11, 2009 | New York Law Journal

Eliott Scheinberg writes that a recent spate of matrimonial cases, with interdepartmental differences, raises a critical issue that many practitioners comfortably assumed had a built-in, simple and ready answer: Can a spouse, who stands in a fiduciary relationship to the other spouse and who is further required by decisional and statutory authority to make broad disclosure during a divorce action, conceal information during settlement negotiations and still prevail in a subsequent action to vacate the agreement?

By Elliott Scheinberg

16 minute read

July 02, 2008 | New York Law Journal

Elliott Scheinberg writes that spouses with financial obligations to prior families are well-advised to enter into prenuptial agreements to insulate against the automatic (up to) 50 percent remarriage penalty. This provision, he notes, must be specified individually because courts may not infer provisions into agreements.

By Elliott Scheinberg

14 minute read

October 30, 2007 | New York Law Journal

Elliott Scheinberg, a consultant to the matrimonial bar, writes that it is well-settled that, in the absence of any affront to public policy, parties have the right to chart their own litigation course, and decisional history evidences that it is the rarest agreement that merits vacatur. Recent arguments attempting to set aside pre-nuptial agreements have proved no exception.

By Elliott Scheinberg

14 minute read

August 13, 2010 | New York Law Journal

Elliott Scheinberg writes that in Fields v. Fields the Court of Appeals infixed asymmetry into a complex arena dominated by statutory guidelines and a substantial body of decisional authority.

By Elliott Scheinberg

15 minute read

August 26, 2008 | New York Law Journal

Elliott Scheinberg, a solo practitioner, writes that Domestic Relations Law §236B(4)(b) directs that the valuation of assets subject to equitable distribution be either as of the commencement date of the action or the date of trial. However, he asks, can the commencement of a prior discontinued divorce action serve as the valuation date for marital property for purposes of equitable distribution in a later divorce action?

By Elliott Scheinberg

14 minute read

June 29, 2009 | New York Law Journal

Elliott Scheinberg, a practitioner in matrimonial law, writes that the Court of Appeals has recently resolved a key issue: payments made to a former spouse and/or children of an earlier marriage, even if made pursuant to court order, are not the type of liabilities entitled to recoupment by the current spouse.

By Elliott Scheinberg

15 minute read

November 30, 2010 | New York Law Journal

Elliott Scheinberg, an appellate attorney whose practice is limited to matrimonial law, explores important questions under the new law: Is there any defense to the new ground? May a plaintiff's statement under oath be accompanied by a motion for summary judgment for divorce? May pleadings be amended to add �170[7]?

By Elliott Scheinberg

15 minute read

July 29, 2004 | New York Law Journal

Elliott Scheinberg, a Manhattan attorney, writes that the core components for admissibility into evidence are relevance, materiality, and competence. But exceptions to the rule against hearsay make the trial world go round.

By Elliott Scheinberg

11 minute read

April 15, 2010 | New York Law Journal

Solo practitioner Elliott Scheinberg writes: The estate of a spouse, whose decedent entered into a settlement agreement which distributed real property held as tenants-by-the-entirety, can find enforcement rebuffed if the decedent died prior to the judgment of divorce or transfer of the property. Notwithstanding contract doctrine to the contrary and the further absence of any catechistic statutory formulae, the Court of Appeals and the Second Department have made this area formula sensitive and unforgiving. The First and Third departments, however, have breathed sensibility into this quicksand, which means a future date on the Albany docket.

By Elliott Scheinberg

15 minute read

October 01, 2004 | New York Law Journal

Elliott Scheinberg, a Manhattan attorney, writes that the Court of Appeals addressed the question of whether counsel who represented the non-monied spouse may seek attorney's fees from the monied spouse after counsel has been discharged without cause.

By Elliott Scheinberg

11 minute read