NY Divorce Consultants Fighting the corrupt New York Divorce Industry!

Worst New York Legislation of 2010 – Divorce Reform Act of 2010

In cases you haven't read the joke of a reform bill that Suzi Oppenheimer sponsored to the New York State Senate, here is a link

Here is a letter I wrote to Senator Oppenheimer, I'll post answers if they come. This bill should have been entitled 'Divorce Attorney Billing Protection act of 2010.' This bill is the biggest piece of shit imaginable and leaves the unregulated billion dollar divorce industry of New York untouched.

Dear Senator Oppenheimer,

I have read your legislation that you ridiculously call the Divorce Reform Act of 2010 and I am appalled. It should more aptly be called the 'Matrimony Lawyers Protection Act of 2010' because this seems to be all that it does. You protect the obscene, hourly billings of the billion-dollar divorce industry and LEGALLY PROTECT that practice of hourly billing in section 6 of your bill.

The root causes of problems in NY Divorce are simple - an unregulated divorce industry that easily bills over $1Billion per year in New York and a corrupt Supreme Court that supports this industry. New Yorkers that enter the divorce system are stripped of tremendous amounts of wealth and can completely lose access to their children without ever having been convicted of a crime or with proper representation. Your reform does nothing to address these root cause issues. Fault is a legal smokescreen that doesn't address the abuses of the divorce industry and the numerous civil rights violations that the New York Supreme Court commits against its citizens.

First of all, I demand to know the true authors of this bill and I demand to see a list of your offices contacts withe New York Bar lobbying groups because clearly they have written your statue. I demand to see the minutes of the working committee that developed this bill and I demand to be pointed to legislative sessions where this bill was argued along with a list of experts consulted for the creation of this bill.

I will ask you a few common sense questions and I would love to hear your responses.

In your bill you maintain that the monied pouse MUST pay all attorneys fees. You further maintain that these fees MUST BE HOURLY and must be RATE ORDINARILY AND CUSTOMARILY CHARGED BY THE ATTORNEY.

1) Did your office do any research as to what is the customary rate of a matrimony attorney in your district?

2) Assuming a monied spouse with a $100,000 a year spouse and non-monied spouse with a $50,000 job how can they afford to pay 2 $15,000 retainer fees as your bill mandates?

3) Did your office do any research to quantify the RATE ORDINARILY AND CUSTOMARILY CHARGED BY THE a court appointed custody or business evaluator?

4) Is your office aware that a typical custody evaluator in New York charges $250/hour, more than double what most psychologists would get in private practice? Are you aware that custody evaluators typically demand payments of $7,000 cash, up front, before they will even begin an evaluation?

5) Is your office aware that New York now provides more screening to substitute teachers than we do to the custody evaluators appointed by the court?

6) is your office aware of any registration process by which a forensic evaluator would register their credentials with NY State?

7) Has your office considered that there are no penalties for lying on the Statement of Net Worth that a judge would supposedly use as a strong basis for awarding counsel fees?

Has your office considered that the Statement of Net Worth does not make litigants list wealthy friends or family members who may be paying attorneys fees as is frequently the case in cases where civil rights are violated?

9) Has your office considered that New York State does not require anything as basic as a credit report to verify a Statement of Net Worth?

10) Is your office aware of the rates of a typical legal guardian in your district?

I am writing a larger report on this issue and I hope that at the completion of my report you will allow me to present it to you or your staff. The bottom line is that New York is violating the civil rights of it's people with faulty legislation and it is time that this ends or that New York be brought to justice for all of the children it has ripped away from parents who can't afford representation.