Contested divorce in New York, from the RJI to trial

A contested New York divorce runs on a schedule the court rules wrote in advance. Forty-five days to get a judge. Forty-five more to the preliminary conference. Six months from there to close discovery and be ready for trial.

Whether your case actually moves that fast depends almost entirely on how fast the financial disclosure gets done.

What makes a divorce contested in New York?

Your spouse does not want the divorce, or disagrees about the grounds, or disagrees about what happens to the children, the money, or the property. That is the court's own definition in its Divorce FAQs.

In practice the ground is rarely the issue anymore, because the no-fault ground cannot be defended against once one spouse swears to it. What makes a modern New York divorce contested is the money and the children, which is exactly what section 170(7) requires to be settled before a judgment can issue. The grounds chapter explains why that sequencing traps a case that has nothing left to argue about except the numbers.

What are the deadlines in a contested New York divorce?

The court system publishes the contested divorce timeline with each rule cited:

• Serve within 120 days of filing. CPLR 306-b.

• File the Request for Judicial Intervention within 45 days of service. Rule 202.16(d). If both parties file a Notice of No Necessity, that stretches to 120 days from service.

• Exchange and file the statement of net worth at least 10 days before the preliminary conference. Rule 202.16(f)(1).

• Hold the preliminary conference within 45 days of judicial assignment, meaning the date the RJI was filed. Rule 202.16(f)(1).

• Hold a compliance conference, unless the court dispenses with it because the parties filed a stipulation of compliance. Rule 202.16(f)(3).

• Complete discovery and file the note of issue within 6 months of the preliminary conference, unless the court shortens or extends it. Rule 202.16(f)(2)(iv).

• Schedule trial no later than 6 months after the preliminary conference. Rule 202.16(f)(3).

What is a Request for Judicial Intervention in New York?

The filing that gets a judge assigned to your case. Until the RJI goes in, your divorce is an index number at the county clerk's office with nobody supervising it.

It costs $95 under CPLR 8020(a), payable before a judge can be assigned, and in an uncontested case it is Form UD-13 in the standard packet. In a contested case with children you also file the Addendum to the RJI, Form 840M.

Filing the RJI is what starts the real clock. Everything in the list above hangs off either the RJI date or the preliminary conference date.

What happens at a preliminary conference in New York?

It is the most consequential appearance in the case, and it happens early. The court rules require the parties themselves to be present, not just the lawyers, and require the judge to address the parties directly.

What comes out of it:

• A discovery schedule. Deadlines for document demands, interrogatories, depositions, and any subpoenas to banks, brokerages, and employers.

• Appraisal and expert directions. If there is a business, a professional practice, real estate, or a pension to value, this is usually where the court sets that up.

• Temporary relief. Temporary maintenance, temporary child support, exclusive occupancy of the residence, and interim counsel fees.

• Custody arrangements for the duration of the case, and often the appointment of an attorney for the child.

• A referral to mediation or another settlement process in many parts of the state.

You walk in with your statement of net worth already exchanged and filed, which is why the statement of net worth chapter treats that document as the anchor of the whole case. The temporary numbers the judge sets on the strength of it tend to shape the negotiation that follows.

What happens in discovery in a New York divorce?

Everything ordinary civil discovery allows, aimed at the financial picture. Document demands, interrogatories, notices to admit, depositions, and non-party subpoenas to banks, employers, brokerages, and accountants.

Where the marital estate includes a business or a professional practice, each side typically retains a valuation expert, and the reports become the centerpiece of the trial. Real estate gets appraised. Pensions get valued by an actuary.

Discovery is where a case either finishes on schedule or does not. The six month deadline is generous when both sides produce what they have. It is impossible when one side does not, and the remedy is a motion to compel followed by a motion for sanctions under CPLR 3126, which can result in an issue being resolved against the noncomplying party or evidence being precluded.

Is there a jury in a New York divorce?

Not for the money. New York allows a jury trial on the grounds for divorce in some circumstances, and the jury demand fee is $65 under CPLR 8020(c). But equitable distribution, maintenance, child support, and custody are all decided by the judge.

Since the no-fault ground removed most fights about grounds, the practical answer for nearly every modern case is that one judge decides everything.

What is temporary relief in a New York divorce?

Orders that govern while the case is pending, and they matter more than people expect because a case can run over a year. New York has a temporary maintenance guideline that uses the same structure and the same income cap as the post-divorce formula, and it ends no later than the judgment. The maintenance chapter covers how that calculation runs.

Courts can also order interim child support, exclusive occupancy of the marital residence, an order of protection, and counsel fees, including fees paid by the monied spouse so the less monied spouse can litigate.

Remember that the automatic orders are already running underneath all of this from the day the summons was filed, restricting what either of you can do with property, retirement accounts, debt, and insurance without consent or a court order.

What happens at a New York divorce trial?

The judge hears testimony and takes documents into evidence on each open issue: classification and valuation of property, income for support purposes, and the child's best interests. Expert witnesses testify to business value, pension value, and in custody cases sometimes to a forensic evaluation.

Then the court has to write. Section 236(B)(6) requires written findings on the maintenance guideline calculation and on any deviation from it, and requires the court to state which factors it considered and why, in a decision neither party can waive. Equitable distribution comes with its own findings requirement.

Those written findings are worth understanding early, because they are what an appeal is built on. A decision that does not explain its reasoning on a required point is the most common ground for sending a case back.

Can a contested New York divorce still settle?

Most do, and the pressure to settle is built into the statute. A judgment cannot be entered on the no-fault ground until the economic issues and custody are resolved by the parties or determined by the court, so the choice is always between agreeing and finishing a trial. The mediation and settlement chapter covers the routes out.

Settlements reached after the preliminary conference get read into the record or signed as a stipulation and incorporated into the judgment. That is the same document a joint filing would have produced at the beginning, arrived at eighteen months and a great deal of money later.