Years ago, test tube babies were a concept of Science Fiction novels. But today, a couples can remove eggs from the female, remove sperm from the male, and have the eggs fertilized, which creates an embryo. Medical staff can cryogenically freeze the embryo, which can then be thawed at a later time and implanted in the uterus of the mother or surrogate mother, where it grows as a fetus.
This scientific capability opens up a whole new area of family law. Disputes over frozen embryos have already arisen in various divorce cases.
One such case, Kass v. Kass was tried in a New York court. The dispute involved a wife who wanted to implant the embryo in her own uterus and the husband who didn’t want to become a parent. Both parties signed an in vitro fertilization (IVF) consent form prior to having the eggs removed, fertilized and frozen. The crux of the agreement was that both parties had to give their consent before the frozen embryos could be released from storage for any purpose. If the couple were to divorce, then the stored embryos would be addressed as part of the property settlement and released based on the court’s judgment.
Three weeks after signing the form, the couple became engaged in a divorce. At that time, they signed another agreement with each other that the embryos would be disposed of in the manner covered by the consent form, and neither spouse nor anyone else could claim custody of the embryos. The argument between the spouses was whether the consent applied before or after implantation. The court upheld their agreement based on New York contract law. The court could not allow implantation unless both parties agreed. In this case, it was against the husband’s wishes. Therefore, the court ruled there would be no implantation.
This case was in 1998, but a judge settled a similar dispute recently in November 2015 in a California case, based on a couple’s agreement prior to the IVF. He also ordered the destruction of the couple’s five frozen embryos.
If you have questions about IVF and need legal advice, discuss your concerns with attorney Chris Palermo. He will be glad to answer your questions and provide you with effective legal guidance.
In the first homicide in nearly 40 years in Scarsdale, Jules Reich, a partner in Manhattan financial services company Weiser Mazars, has been charged with second degree murder in the stabbing death of his wife, Dr. Robin Goldman. Reich had filed for divorce last August and the parties had a scheduled court appearance on January 25, 2016. On the morning of January 19, police received a 911 call from Reich, saying that Goldman had been seriously injured. When police arrived moment later, they found Goldman in the shower with multiple stab wounds.
Though neither party had ever reported domestic violence to authorities, friends and neighbors acknowledged that they knew there was discord in the marriage. Prosecutors told the judge at a bail hearing that Goldman was so afraid of Reich that she had all the locks changed at the marital home. They also said that Goldman’s children wanted to get a protection order because of their fear of him. Reich’s attorney asked that bail be set at $150,000, but the judge denied bail.
According to prosecutors, Reich has a long history in the mergers and acquisitions profession, and has “money stashed all over the world,” making him a significant flight risk. Conversely, they portrayed Goldman as a woman committed to caring for children, both in her career and at home. She worked as a pediatrician at Montefiore Medical Group’s Comprehensive Family Care facility in the Bronx. She was also an assistant professor of medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Her children said, though, that she had limited her practice to three days a week to spend more time with family, including four grandchildren.
Divorce Proceeding Ends in Tragedy
Marital Discord Ends in Murder
Contact an Experienced New York Divorce and Family Law Attorney
At the law office of Chris Palermo, Esq., we bring more than 13 years of experience to men and women in divorce and family law matters, representing clients across Long Island. To learn more about our practice, see our divorce and family law page. For an appointment, send us an e-mail or call us toll free at 1-800-483-1527. We have offices located in Huntington, Hauppauge, Garden City, Babylon and New York City.
The son of the world’s second wealthiest hedge fund manager, George Soros, filed for divorce in 2014 after 22 years of marriage. A property division trial resulted from a dispute over substantial amounts of money.
According to Page Six , Soros’ son, Robert, deposited $21 million into his personal accounts while his wife, Melissa, struggled with breast cancer. Melissa testified that he deposited $21 million in jointly filed tax refunds. She explained that during her extensive rounds of chemo treatments for breast cancer, she also experienced pneumonia, broke her ankle and had problems with insomnia. Prior to her illness she stayed on top of finances, making sure they weren’t overcharged and even caught a hardware store employee who charged their account for furnishings made to the employee’s home. After she became ill, her focus shifted to recovering, and she couldn’t give household finances the same degree of attention. Between 2010 and 2011, Robert Soros deposited four checks, totaling $21M, into his personal accounts. He maintained that he and his wife had an oral agreement that he would retain the refunds because he paid the taxes.
They went to trial solely over how to divide the $21 million in tax refunds on jointly filed returns. They’ve already arrived at an agreement that Melissa will keep the $21 million Greenwich Village town house. Robert’s net worth is estimated at $350 million.
New York Property Division laws dictate equitable division, which means each spouse owns the income he or she earns during the marriage and has rights to property that is in his or her name alone. Judges determine assets division, which may or may not be exactly equal. (Findlaw)
The jointly filed return and arriving at a fair and equitable property division are what complicate this matter.
If you’re struggling with property division disagreements, consult with attorney Chris Palermo. Chris is an experienced Long Island divorce lawyer who has helped numerous clients overcome the challenges involved with divorce.
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2015 was a tough year for celebrity marriages and, if the first two weeks of 2016 are any indication, the trend will continue this year. Less than two weeks into the new year, at least two high-profile stars have decided to call it quits on their marriages.
Research shows that celebrity marriages face significantly more challenges than other relationships. A comprehensive study by the Marriage Foundation, a British think-tank, found that celebrity betrothals are twice as likely to end in divorce as other marriages. Researchers apparently followed nearly 500 famous couples between 2001 and 2010 and compared their rate of divorce to the British population as a whole. While just slightly more than one quarter (26%) of all marriages ended in divorce, one in two celebrity marriages failed to go the distance.
At the law office of Chris Palermo, Esq., we bring more than 13 years of experience to men and women in divorce and family law matters, representing clients across Long Island. To learn more about our practice, see our divorce and family law page. For an appointment, send us an e-mail or call us toll free at 1-800-483-1527. We have offices located in Huntington, Hauppauge, Garden City, Babylon and New York City.
Ten men, including two Orthodox rabbis, have been sentenced for their role in a divorce-coercion ring.
Prosecutors say that, under Jewish law, a woman may not obtain a divorce without her husband’s permission, referred to as a “get.” They acknowledged that it is common practice for a rabbi to employ certain measures to persuade a recalcitrant husband to consent. Such steps may include prohibiting the husband from attendance at synagogue or participation in synagogue life.
The two rabbis who pled guilty, though, had apparently resorted to far more heinous measures to obtain the “get.” Officials say the rabbis had assembled a group of eight men who would kidnap an unwilling husband and torture/beat him until he agreed to a divorce. According to court documents, the two rabbis charged women seeking a divorce a substantial fee to obtain a rabbinical decree authorizing violence—approximately $10,000. An additional fee of $50,000 covered the cost of the kidnapping and torture.
The ten men were arrested in a sting operation orchestrated by the FBI. An agent, posing as a Jewish woman seeking a divorce, contacted one of the rabbis, telling him that she needed help from a “special rabbi” to accomplish her goal. She apparently told the rabbi that her husband was in Argentina and would not agree to the divorce. The rabbi told her that she would need to “get him to New York to harass him or nail him.” The rabbi convened a rabbinical court that ruled that the husband could be coerced and contacted the eight men, who went to a warehouse in Edison, New Jersey, believing they would find the reluctant husband there. Instead, federal officials were waiting to arrest them.
At the law office of Chris Palermo, Esq., we bring more than 13 years of experience to men and women in divorce and family law matters, representing clients across Long Island. To learn more about our practice, see our divorce and family law page. For an appointment, send us an e-mail or call us toll free at 1-800-483-1527. We have offices located in Huntington, Hauppauge, Garden City, Babylon and New York City.
It’s been a tough year for celebrity marriages and relationships and the going has only gotten tougher over the last few months. Here are some of the long-term couples who have hit the skids this year.
At the law office of Chris Palermo, Esq., we bring more than 13 years of experience to men and women in divorce and family law matters, representing clients across Long Island. To learn more about our practice, see our divorce and family law page. For an appointment, send us an e-mail or call us toll free at 1-800-483-1527. We have offices located in Huntington, Hauppauge, Garden City, Babylon and New York City.
For regular folks, divorce is mostly won or lost in the courtroom, or in legal proceedings. But for celebrities, it’s a completely different playing field. As some of the high-profile divorce cases from 2015 demonstrate, it can be mostly about perceived image, and it can appear to be highly orchestrated.
Take the case of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner. Though both parties repeatedly claimed that they had nothing to report and supposedly asked reporters to “respect their privacy,” they routinely appeared in public with their children in situations where they knew they would get press coverage. In fact, inside sources say that they intentionally collaborated with gossip magazine sources. Most believe that People Magazine intentionally downplayed early signs of trouble in exchange for the exclusive right to be the first to go public with the news.
With the divorce of country music stars Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert, both had press agents who continually released information to various rumor mills, alleging infidelity by the other party. The intensity of the rumors forced Lambert’s bandmate, Chris Young, to make a public statement denying any relationship with the singer. Rumors then started, presumably fed by press agents for Lambert, that Shelton was “seeing” The Voice co-star Gwen Stefani. What better way to increase viewership at the beginning of a new season, according to many.
Even as the hubbub subsided, Shelton and Stefani added fuel to the fire by having their picture taken holding hands at a CMA Awards party. Just minutes before the CMA Awards program began, the two (Shelton and Stefani) had their press agents announce that they were dating. Since then, the two have been splashed across the gossip magazines, which insiders say is strictly for the purpose of showing that Shelton came out of the breakup on top, and that Lambert was left holding the bag.
At the law office of Chris Palermo, Esq., we bring more than 13 years of experience to men and women in divorce and family law matters, representing clients across Long Island. To learn more about our practice, see our divorce and family law page. For an appointment, send us an e-mail or call us toll free at 1-800-483-1527. We have offices located in Huntington, Hauppauge, Garden City, Babylon and New York City.
A couple’s home is often the largest asset they own together. It stands to reason that when a marriage breaks down, deciding what to do with the home deserves careful consideration. There will be many divorce decisions.
The first thing you must understand is that New York is an equitable property division state. Equitable property division means that property is divided fairly but not always equally. When deciding property division, factors include how much each spouse contributed to their marital estate and what each spouses needs to survive once divorced.
Sale. You can sell your home and divide the proceeds.
Delayed sale. One spouse can stay in the home while raising the children and after the last child graduates high school or college, the couple can sell the home and divide the proceeds at that point.
Buyout. One spouse can pay the other spouse half of the home’s equity and continue to make mortgage payments and keep the home.
Mortgage payments. When temporarily keeping the home, the settlement can address what mortgage payments both spouses make on the co-owned home.
Taxes are also important to consider. Factors include capital gains tax exemptions, buyout tax payments, and taxes when co-owning a house and selling it later. It is wise to consult with your tax advisor and explain the financial details involved with your divorce. Your lawyers can also take taxes into consideration when negotiating a fair property division settlement.
Whatever issues you face regarding divorce decisions, Long Island divorce attorney Chris Palermo will work closely with you to address all aspects of your divorce.
It is no secret that celebrities are often put in the position of role models for the rest of society. So, when celebrity couples divorce, people take notice.
Without a doubt, the media has capitalized on celebrity divorces that were heated and painful displays of how not to divorce. Charlie Sheen’s marriages with Denise Richards and Brooke Mueller both involved allegations of domestic violence and angry communications. Their divorces were neither simple nor amicable.
In contrast, some celebrities have provided good examples of amicable divorces. The divorce between Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert comes to mind. In a recent interview, Miranda Lambert tells fans not to pick a side because it doesn’t help anyone. She says there isn’t a side to pick anyway and explains she had a great relationship with an amazing man, so she knows what good is, and that gives her a great launching pad for the future. Aside from having great attitudes, some legal factors that helped them to divorce smoothly and quickly were the fact they had no children, had a prenuptial agreement and the waiting period in Oklahoma is short. Hours after the media announced their split, reporters discovered their divorce had already become officially final. US Magazine reported Blake as saying they only had a nine or 10 day waiting period after filing.
While not quick, the divorce between Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner has involved communication and cooperation between the couple. They want to divorce amicably for the sake of their three children. They announced their decision to end their marriage together, rather than separately, releasing a statement that “After much thoughtful and careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to divorce.” According to Closer Weekly, they had been separated for 10 months, but Ben was still living at the house. They made a conscious effort to save their marriage. When unable to reconcile, they also wanted to make their divorce as easy as possible for the kids. They’ve been seen running errands together and going places together since announcing their divorce plans.
For anyone considering divorce, it is important to have an effective divorce lawyer you feel comfortable with to discuss your options and work out the best approach. Based on the issues you face, your divorce will differ from someone else’s and require tailored representation. Chris Palermo is an experienced Long Island divorce lawyer who has helped numerous clients effectively deal with the difficulties of divorce.