The Legislature passed a new temporary maintenance law this year which is now in effect.1 DRL §236(B)(5-a) introduces a formula method akin to the Child Support Standards Act (CSSA). The formula drops any pretense that the temporary award aims to meet actual reasonable needs of a party and unhinges it from the pre-separation standard of living. In a nutshell, it yields a “presumptively” correct amount of temporary maintenance with respect to the payor’s income up to a cap of $500,000.
As with the CSSA, the formula is a rebuttable presumption to be applied unless a variance finding is made that it yields an unjust or inappropriate result. A comprehensive exposition of the new law lies beyond the space here available.2 This article will simply highlight some of the features and incongruities of the new statute that are likely to cause problems in its application.
Statutory Definitions
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