Swain, NY Divorce Law Firms & Lawyers

That can't be answered without a lot more information. When was the pension earned? How? Were they married at the time. Whether or not he cheated has nothing to do with the economic distribution.

Under the current state of divorce law, there are new provisions as to maintenance (alimony) during the pendency of a divorce and for final judgments.  The Court now looks at the parties incomes as per the last filed tax returns and does calculations to determine the amount of alimony.  Before this change, alimony was determined on a number of factors on a case-by-case basis.  This resulted in inconsistent amounts and was difficult to predict what a Court would do.  Now, where the parties have not agreed to alimony, a court MUST make an award of alimony based on a formula approach. This approach calculates support in 2 ways and the lower result is used.  The first method subtracts 20% of the income of the lower earning spouse from 30% of the income of the higher earning spouse.  The second method 40% of the total combined income then subtracts the payee's income.  If the number under the second method is zero, then no support is awarded. The fact that the wife was the higher earning spouse as opposed to the husband would require the wife to be the payor if the formulas require it.  In addition, she would have to share her pension but may not have to keep the husband on the medical insurance after the divorce. A knowledgable attorney in the field should be consulted with detailed information to determine your rights and obligations. Alfred Polizzotto, III