Health Insurance Disclosure Required for New Divorce Agreements

Posted on August 24, 2007 by David A. Gabay

Daniel Clement’s blog has an interesting item regarding a new medical insurance disclosure requirement for New York state divorce agreements and judgments. The law mandates that all divorce settlement agreements contain specific language advising the parties that they may lose their health insurance as a result of the entry of a judgment of divorce.  The law requires the Court to ensure that the statutory language is contained in the agreement. The law takes effect on November 1, 2007.

This new law is, in my opinion, completely unnecessary and will do nothing but cause confusion and delay in the resolution of divorce actions for several months while the Courts and matrimonial attorneys update their forms and procedures to accommodate the additional language. 

In my experience, I have never had a cause where a party was unaware that he or she would lose his or her health insurance after a divorce was finalized. In fact, for many of my clients the questions surrounding the loss and cost of health insurance after a divorce were a major point of negotiation and contention.

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Child Support Arrears and Passport Restrictions

Posted on May 16, 2007 by David A. Gabay

Owing child support arrears may affect your ability to get a passport to travel abroad. The United States Department of State’s rules and regulations require that a passport application be denied if the applicant is in arrears on his or child support payments. Arrears in excess of $2,500.00 will result in the denial of a passport, and that threshold can drop to as low as $1 depending on the state in which the applicant resides. 

The limit for New York residents is the federal limit of $2,500.00.

If your application is denied because of child support arrears, the only way to address this issue is to reduce the arrears to an acceptable level. Once that is accomplished, your state child support agency will notify the federal government (the Department of Health and Human Services). The State Department advises passport applicants that they will need approximately 5-10 business days from the date the arrears are reduced for your name to be removed from the list of person to be denied a passport.

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