Divorce

Kept separate from family law on purpose: the questions are different, and so is what you need to know first.

Overview

New York divides marital property by equitable distribution. That means a court divides what the marriage built according to what it considers fair in your circumstances, not automatically down the middle. Fair is a judgment, and judgment can be argued.

Loom Light Legal handles contested and uncontested divorce across New York: the grounds and the filing, the division of property and debt, spousal maintenance, and where children are involved, custody and support alongside. The aim is a settlement you can live with, reached without spending more on the argument than the argument is worth.

Situations we handle

Where people usually start.

You have decided to divorce and want to understand the process before you start it.

Your spouse has filed, and you need to respond within the time allowed.

You agree on most things and want a clean, properly drafted uncontested divorce.

There is a business, a pension, a property or an inheritance whose treatment is genuinely disputed.

You suspect the financial picture you are being shown is not the whole one.

Where it goes wrong

The mistakes that cost the most.

Agreeing to numbers before seeing the full picture

Settlements signed before disclosure is complete are difficult to reopen. Retirement accounts, deferred compensation and business value are the assets most often undercounted, and they are frequently the largest ones in the marriage.

Moving out without advice

Leaving the marital home rarely forfeits an interest in it, but it can reshape the practical arrangement for children and complicate what happens to the property in the meantime. It is worth ten minutes of advice before a decision made in a difficult week becomes permanent.

Fighting over the wrong things

Legal costs accumulate fastest on contested items of modest value. Deciding early which points genuinely matter, and conceding the rest deliberately rather than grudgingly, is usually what separates a proportionate divorce from an expensive one.

Our process

How the matter moves.

Tell us what is happening

A short intake in your own words. No legal terminology required, and no obligation attached to it.

Map the marital estate

What was brought in, what was built together, what is owed. The realistic range of outcomes follows from this, not from instinct.

Agree the approach

A written scope, a fee structure and a route — negotiated, mediated or litigated — approved by you before work begins.

Negotiate the settlement

Most divorces resolve by agreement. We negotiate against the range identified, so you know what a proposal is actually worth.

File and finalise

The agreement drafted to be enforceable, filed properly, and explained to you in terms you can act on afterwards.

Begin

Speak with Dale Riedel.

Tell us what is happening in a few sentences. We will tell you whether it is something we handle, what the realistic options are, and what it costs to find out more.