Divorce records are considered intrusive if exposed to the public. Prior to 1975, divorce wasn’t allowed until you can prove to the court that marriage is irreconcilable. This is called Fault Based Divorce. It’s expensive, painful, sometimes difficult to prove and takes years to process.
After that, most of the states in the US filed for a No-Fault Divorce based system. This reduced the degree of difficulty in filing for divorce into a mere signature on the paper.
Surprisingly, New York City wasn’t one of those. If you search for NY divorce records, you wouldn’t find a lot. In fact New York City is one of the states that have the lowest divorce rate in the US.
This trend might go the other way because the State’s Senate Democratic Majority passed a legislative package to end New York’s status as the only state in America without the No-Fault divorce legislation. This legislation became official in 2010. A No-Fault divorce means you are not holding your spouse accountable for any specific act of wrongdoing that resulted in the dissolution of your marriage. This would increase the rate of divorce for all New Yorkers and will surely amplify the NY divorce records that are kept in the Vital Records section.
Searching for an NY divorce records online is easier than doing it personally. First name, last name, date of birth and last known address are usually the minimum requirements for the search to start. It will then search all available divorce records in the state you indicated and you will be instantly be notified if there is a match. Some websites offer you this search for free but usually doesn’t give you much to work on. Apparently they use this tactic as a bait to lure you into their site. Once you are in, they will offer you a more comprehensive search but requires a one time registration fee for its unlimited access.
The government also maintains a database for this search and depending on the state, they also charge either per word or per record.
New York has its own set of requirements for obtaining a divorce records. Some say it’s difficult to get a NY divorce record. If you want to search for your own divorce record, that shouldn’t be a problem. After all it is your record. However, if your name is not on record, you must submit a New York State court order as proof of entitlement.
Divorce Records search can help you verify if your partner is legally divorced. It also gives you an idea on when and where the filings were made, names of the parties involved as well as case numbers. If a divorce is found, you may want to dig deeper and look for some documentation from that file. Some of the important issues to look for are domestic violence, child custody, alimony and other settlement issues.
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