Go to court armed with indisputable information.

Attorneys can subpoena third parties and company to gain access to useful information in matrimonial and custody disputes.  Subpoenaing a person’s bank account can shed light on their spending habits and be used to impute income on them; it can also be used to show a person leads a high-risk lifestyle.  Similarly, subpoenaing ride share apps like Uber and Lyft can demonstrate whether a parent has traveled with your children beyond boundaries set by the court.  In some instances, it is also possible to serve subpoenas on a person’s Venmo account, workplace, cellphone provider, or other financial institutions.

The Stored Communications Act (18 U.S.C. Chapter 121 §§ 2701-2712) limits the amount of content an attorney can receive from social media companies, and e-mail and cellphone providers.  Specifically, attorneys in civil matters can only obtain non-content information.  That means attorneys can request IP address information, location data, the time and date of calls and text messages, billing information, and more but can not ask to see the content of the person’s e-mails or text messages.  As a result, attorneys can see, for instance, if a person is text messaging someone, but they would not be able to see the words or images being exchanged.

One exception to this is if the other party consents to the release of their information or a court orders them to provide you with a release or send you a copy of their downloaded account.  Apple, Google, and other companies will provide a user with a copy of their account, upon request.  Google Takeout, for example, allows a Gmail user to download all data associated with their account.  The services and data that can be exported is usually far beyond what users expect and can include, among other things, one’s Google Search History, Google Calendar, Google Drive files, Google Photos, Google Location History, Gmail data, Google Maps, YouTube Search History, and YouTube comments.  Apple will also send a user a backed up version of their iCloud containing files, photos, text messages, and other information.

Like with matters of custody, it is possible to subpoena third parties and companies in divorces.  This is often done to establish one spouse’s ability to pay a certain amount or that the other spouse does not need a certain amount. Spousal support, once known as alimony and now called maintenance, is court ordered money paid to support a spouse or former spouse.  Courts can also award temporary maintenance while a case is pending in court.  While New York has a formula its courts use to determine the presumptive amount of maintenance or temporary maintenance owed, the court has the discretion to deviate from those calculations. 

As far as how long maintenance payments should be made, New York courts have presumptive calculations for this too.  Maintenance for marriages lasting fewer than 15 years generally lasts for 15% to 30% the length of the marriage.  That means, for a 10 year marriage, maintenance payments would generally last for a period of 18-36 months.  Maintenance for marriages lasting between 15 and 20 years generally lasts for 30% to 40% of the length of the marriage.  That means, for a 17-year marriage, maintenance would generally last for a period of five to six and a half years.  Maintenance for marriages lasting more than 20 years generally lasts 35% to 50% of the length of the marriage.  That means, for a 25 year marriage, maintenance would generally last for a period of between eight and a half to twelve and a half years. Establishing that one party has the ability to pay more than the presumptive amounts is often done with the assistance of subpoenas.  Civil attorneys can subpoena your spouse’s bank accounts, investment accounts, retirement funds, and other companies to argue your case.