Collaborative Cases
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In a divorce case involving a
couple with a disabled child, the collaborative process
was used to resolve custody and visitation disputes
thereby minimizing conflict and saving money. The
parties – with approximately equal incomes – agreed to a
shared custody arrangement. Father and mother have equal
physical access to the child and equally divide the
reasonable expenses for the child, rather than having a
traditional custody/child support payment arrangement.
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Representing the wife in an
interdisciplinary collaborative
divorce, worked with financial
expert, husband's counsel and the
parties in structuring reasonable
maintenance for the wife's support
and helping her determine a new and
rewarding career path.
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Representing the husband and
working as a team with the wife’s collaborative
attorney, helped a couple resolve issues relating to the
sale of the marital home as soon as possible so that
they could equitably divide the net sale proceeds. With
the attorneys’ help, the couple came up with a creative
solution that worked for both of them to finance their
child’s college education. The child was about to begin
college at an out-of-state public university. The
husband, who was approaching retirement age, moved to
that state in order to get substantially less expensive in-state tuition rates. The
wife waived spousal support in exchange for the
husband’s waiver of separate property credits so that
$400,000 in appreciated value of the husband’s separate
inherited property was divided equally. This finely
tailored settlement package worked for both parties.
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In a case that initially began
with Family Court litigation, the lawyers used
collaborative techniques to get the parties to settle
the Family Court case, then the subsequent divorce case
was handled as a Collaborative Divorce. The husband
suffered from severe depression, so the collaborative
process was key to protecting his fragile mental health.
The settlement included the wife’s permanent waiver of
maintenance (alimony), in exchange for the husband’s
waiver of valuable separate property credits with
respect to his retirement funds; the retirement funds
were divided equally.
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In a case that began as a
Collaborative Divorce, the respectful negotiations
contributed to the parties’ reaching a meeting of the
minds for a divorce settlement . . . and to their
subsequent decision to discontinue the divorce
negotiations and resume marriage counseling in an effort
to save their marriage.
Prior results do not guarantee similar
outcome.
Litigated Cases
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In a litigated divorce case where
the client wanted to use the
collaborative process but spouse
would not cooperate, was able to
apply collaborative techniques to
narrow the issues, contain the
conflict and obtain a favorable
result at trial. See article:
"The
Struggle to Preserve Collaborative Law Benefits
when Litigating a Divorce, "
published in the Spring/Summer, 2007
edition of the Westchester Bar
Journal.
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Successfully argued in a
three-day child custody trial that a non-custodial
father was entitled to a court order restraining the
custodial parent, the mother, from relocating with the
child to a distant state. The court found that the
relocation would interfere with the child’s regular,
frequent visitation with his father and would not serve
the child’s best interests. See article, "Restraining
the Custodial Parent from Relocating
the child to a distant domicile and
depriving the Non-Custodial Parent
of regular and frequent visitation,"
by Arnold D. Cribari Esq., published
in the May, 1988 edition of the
Domestic Law Review of the
Westchester County Bar Association,
Family Law section.
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Obtained a $140,000 distributive
award (plus child support, maintenance and reimbursement
of counsel fees) for a wife based on the husband’s
enhanced earning capacity during the marriage. The wife
had managed the home and two children while the husband
became board-eligible as an emergency room physician.
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Obtained a court order for a husband
with recurrent major depression
directing his wife to pay him
$5,000/month maintenance for his
support. In addition, obtained a
$600,000 settlement as the husband’s
fair share of the wife’s retirement
funds accrued during the marriage.
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Served as Trial and/or Appellate
Counsel in the following reported
cases:
- Madori
v. Madori, 151 Misc2d 737, 573 NYS2d 553
Sup. Ct., Westchester Co., 1991)
- Diaco v. Diaco, 278 AD2d 358, 717 NYS2d
635 (Second Dept., 2000)
- Lee v. Fisher Hotels Inc., 130 AD2d 628,
515 NYS 2d 556 (Second Dept., 1987);
- Pompa v. Pompa, 259 AD2d 338, 687 NYS2d 25
(First Dept., 1999)
- Lasky V. Lasky, 216 AD2d 366, 628 NYS2d
532 (Second Dept., 1995)
- Galotti v. Galotti, 251 AD2d 285, 672
NYS2d 924 (Second Dept., 1998)
- Meyer v. Meyer, 88 NY2d 1062, 651 NYS2d
404 (1996)
Prior results do not guarantee similar
outcome. |
