The New York City Bar Association recommended that a recently-enacted formula to calculate temporary spousal support payments be applied more broadly in the state courts, according to Reuters.
Among the reasons for the recommendations from the organization was the idea of a consistent award system.
“People want both consistency in maintenance awards among similarly-situated parties, and predictability so attorneys can point to past decisions as a path (for current clients),” Rose Mary Bailly, the head of the Law Revision Committee, told Reuters.
The recommendations were presented as part of an overhaul that included the creation of a no-fault divorce law and legislation that would enable poorer individuals to limit their payments to spouses, according to the news source.
The report noted that previous calculations had relied on “assumptions on assumptions. As we have seen in recent years of economic upheaval, these assumptions often do not pan out.”
According to the organization’s website, the recommendations came from an inequality that had existed among income levels, as poor divorcees sometimes had to pay more than they could afford.
