Tag Archives: New York family law software

Dependency Exemption As A Child Support Bargaining Chip

When a couple divorces, who gets to claim the kids as tax deductions? The law says whichever party is named the custodial parent (CP) claims the exemption. However the CP has the option of waiving that exemption to allow the non-custodial parent (NCP) to claim it instead. That can be a powerful advantage when negotiating child support.

The question becomes important when the NCP makes significantly more money than the CP. The NCP will gain a larger tax break from each child than the CP will. So why would the CP give up the exemption? Because the NCP offers a boost in child support.

Just because the attorneys use New York child support software to determine what state law calculates child support should be, that doesn’t mean the parents have to accept that amount. If both parties sign an alternative support agreement, then it will supersede the amount laid out under the law.

The NCP could offer to pay a higher child support amount than calculated by the New York family law software in return for the exemption, specifically an amount greater than the tax benefit the CP would get from claiming the exemption but less than what the NCP will get. The NCP gets a big tax break. The CP gets more child support. More money is available for the child’s expenses. It’s a win-win-win situation, and the more kids involved the greater the potential impact.

Attorneys on either side who want to present this deal will need to have the figures to back it up. Using family law software New York attorneys can calculate the value of each offer, allowing both sides to see the waived exemption is in everyone’s best interest.

This is just one of the many ways EzSupport-NY simplifies family practice in the state of New York. Prepare the New York net worth statement, print out customized forms and correspondence, and file cases with a fraction of the effort as doing it manually. Use it in conjunction with our other law firm software products such as Divorce Financials or Easy Time Bill for a full suite of practice management tools for even greater benefits.

Posted by Rick Kabra on April 17, 2013 in Legal Technologies, New York Family Law | Comments Off
Technorati Tagged : , , , ,

Child Support: You Can’t Avoid The Grunt Work

Recently a New York court threw out the divorce settlement in the case of David vs. Cruz because, despite the fact both parties agreed to ignore the formulas set forth by the Child Support Standards Act (CSSA), calculations of those formulas weren’t included in the settlement. Divorcing couples still have to fill out the NY Statement of Net Worth and all the other paperwork associated with divorce settlement even if they come up with their own support plan.

The law states that before parents can waive the child support calculated by the CSSA, they have to be presented with those numbers. This means attorneys still need to calculate state-mandated child support just so the parents can say, “No, we don’t want that.”

Frustrating? Sure. A waste of time? Maybe. Required by the courts? Yes.

Let’s be honest: collecting the information required to satisfy the state-mandated formulas governing New York State spousal support and child support is a huge amount of work for the attorneys and the divorcing spouses. Yet you better do it anyhow.

Of course if you use New York child support software you’ll find the process a lot easier. The state formulas can be calculated in a snap, printed out to be included in the agreement, and then completely ignored if that is what the parents want. The software also makes it easy to set up custom support scenarios and compare them to the state formulas.

One reason the state insists on this is it is possible for one parent to bully or trick the other into an agreement that is unfair. When both parents see the numbers calculated by the CSSA formulas they may realize their prearranged agreement is unreasonable.

It doesn’t pay to try to get around the law. Even if you think you’ve found a reason why you wouldn’t need to complete some of the paperwork, it’s not going to hurt to do it anyhow. New York family law software automates and speeds up the process. The attorneys are going to have to gather much of the information anyhow, so they might as well go through the motions just to protect themselves.

If you aren’t already using legal practice management software in your family law firm then download a demo of Easy Soft’s products to see for yourself how our tools help you serve your clients better.

Posted by Rick Kabra on April 3, 2013 in Legal Technologies, New York Family Law | Comments Off
Technorati Tagged : , , , ,

Recover From Disaster With Hurricane-Proof Software

The New York area has seen numerous extreme weather events lately, events that have jeopardized, among other things, business databases. What would your practice do if you lost all of your client information? Arguably it’s possible to gather the data again but that’s a long process that is going to waste countless hours, and it doesn’t help if you have a New York State spousal support hearing later that the same day.

Manual backups are the most obvious protection. Backup utilities are easy to use and archive information from your practice’s NY family law software onto external media such as DVDs, flash drives or tapes. The problem is if you haven’t moved those archives to another location then the same disaster that claims your computers will destroy the backups as well. Shipping them to offsite storage is a bother and can be expensive.

A number of businesses are turning to online backup solutions. These utilities automatically back up your New York divorce software and other files over the internet to servers located far from your office. They use encrypted transmissions, leading edge data protection technology and redundant storage systems to ensure your data is completely safe from threats such as viruses, hackers and natural disasters. This is often a more flexible solution than manual backups but there is one problem: what if your office computers are destroyed?

In that case your data is safe and recoverable but you have no software to access the files themselves. You have to go through the process of buying new computers and re-installing the software–oh wait, the installation discs were destroyed as well. This takes time you and your clients don’t have.

Luckily there is now a third option: New York family law software such as EzSupport-NY can now be found in cloud versions. This means not only is your data stored safely online but so is the software itself.

In a worst-case scenario your entire office has been destroyed in a disaster. Your attorneys can continue practicing right from their home computers without a break in service. You could have a court date a few hours after a catastrophe and yet no one will even realize there was a problem. You will still have full access to client files while an opposing attorney recovering from the same city-wide disaster has to make excuses about not being ready.

Cloud versions of Easy Soft’s law practice management software protect you from more than just natural disasters. Fire or theft could also devastate your office, leaving you unable to work if you rely on traditional desktop-based tools. Protect your practice and your clients by moving your business into the cloud.

Posted by Rick Kabra on February 19, 2013 in Family Law Software, Legal Technologies, New York Family Law | Comments Off
Technorati Tagged : , , , ,

Is New York’s Temporary Maintenance Law Going To Change?

It’s been a bit over two years since New Yorkpassed the Temporary Maintenance Law designed to award alimony payments during divorce proceedings. This law, passed at the same time as the New York state uncontested divorce law, provides a simple calculation that determines how much maintenance, if any, a spouse with the greater income pays the spouse with the lower income during the time leading up to the final divorce decree and the final, permanent maintenance agreement. The maintenance law itself has received mixed reviews from experts.

On the one hand, family law attorneys agree that it gives less-monied spouses immediate financial relief without weeks or months of wrangling in court. Analysts have noted that low-income couples in particular have benefited from the new law. Domestic violence advocates are pleased that the law makes it easier for abused spouses to get the resources needed to escape an abusive home rather than stay in a bad relationship. The amount awarded is predictable since it is defined by a straightforward equation, making it easier for both spouses to budget their expenses during the divorce process.

However critics point out that the New York spousal maintenance formula considers only income and not expenses. The party who remains in the family house shoulders the full burden of mortgage payments and other expenses without appropriate compensation. Some attorneys feel the law results in lower support for the less-monied spouse than they would have received previously.

As a response to these concerns, the New Yorklegislature asked the Law Review Commission to review the New York state spousal support law and present a report by December 2011. As of this writing that report has still not been completed and the 2012 legislative session is over so there will be no change in the law this year.

Easy Soft has been watching these proceedings with interest. EzSupport-NY, our dedicated New York family law software, already includes a temporary maintenance calculator that automatically determines the appropriate level of spousal maintenance. If the legislature changes the law in the next session, then we will update EzSupport-NY to reflect the updated maintenance formula.

In the meantime, New Yorkattorneys can benefit from our line of family law attorney practice management software to simplify the process of calculating temporary and permanent maintenance, property division and child support payments. Try EzSupport-NY or any of our software free for 30 days.

Posted by Rick Kabra on December 3, 2012 in Legal Technologies, New York Family Law, Uncategorized | Comments Off
Technorati Tagged : , , , ,

The Untapped Potential of the New York Statement of Net Worth

If you’re a divorce attorney in New York, you know all about the Statement of Net Worth . You routinely prepare the Statement of Net Worth , even in uncontested divorce cases, to inventory your client’s assets and liabilities in preparation for distribution. Then, if you’re like most attorneys, you file the signed document away in the filing cabinet, not to be thought of again, unless it becomes a trial exhibit or judgment roll submission.

Have you considered using the Statement of Net Worth as an information repository throughout the duration of the case?

Instead of creating a static Statement of Net Worth , use Easy Soft’s EzSupport-NY software to make each one a dynamic document. Each time you receive financial information and updates from your client, opposing counsel, and third parties, input that additional financial information into your Easy Soft New York divorce forms software .

You can also use your Easy Soft New York divorce forms software to generate various distribution proposals. Using our software, once the assets and liabilities are entered, you can allocate those resources between the two parties. And, as you consider different options, you can easily change asset and liability allocations to generate a new report, including new dollar totals and percentage views.

Another way to use our New York family law software is to help your client prepare for income tax filings during and after the case. The Statement of Net Worth also contains income information, dependent information, details relative to purchase of a home that might be sold, accounts that might be income generating, and retirement funds that might be loaned against or cashed out in whole or in part. Accountants find this inventory useful, too, as they try to collect much of the same information.

This same income information from the Statement of Net Worth is also used to perform New York child support . Automation of child support and spousal support computations is just another reason to think of your client’s net worth form as a versatile and dynamic part of the divorce case.

And then there is post-divorce financial planning with a financial manager or investment advisor. Instead of your client having to go through repeat financial questions, your client can simply provide a copy of the Easy Soft Statement of Net Worth to the advisor, so that the conversation can move forward into goal setting.

With all these reasons to start using our EzSupport-NY software, isn’t it time you started your download?

Posted by Rick Kabra on June 13, 2012 in Divorce Settlement | Comments Off
Technorati Tagged : , ,

Family Law Software – New York State Divorce Calculator with Document Automation

Known for innovation and technological tools, Easy Soft once again meets the growing demands of legal software users with their popular family law software , E z Support–NY.

A few highlights of the cutting edge tools in E z Support – NY include:

  • An easy to use, uncluttered user interface makes data entry and understanding calculations a breeze.
  • Generate any form from a common set of data entered.
  • Automated Documents Generation:
    • Statement of Net Worth with unlimited asset and debt items
    • Common Divorce Forms (UD1 to UD14)
    • Child Support and Temporary Spousal Support Worksheets
  • Add an unlimited number of your own family law forms, such as correspondence or litigation documents.
  • All forms are fully customizable. Save forms as Word or PDF and email, all within the program.
  • SupportNY lite : Lets you collect initial case data from clients electronically.
  • Smartphone App : Calculate New York child and temporary maintenance and Alimony Buyout or Present Value and Alimony Recapture.

E z Support-NY helps New York attorneys who handle divorce cases perform formerly time-consuming divorce paperwork in seconds. The advanced tools in our new E z Support-NY program give family law attorneys capabilities they only dreamed of until now.

New York law firms interested in learning more about the unique features in EzSupport – NY software may call 800-905-7638 or to download a free trial, visit: http://www.easysoft-usa.com/new-york-divorce-software.html

About Easy Soft: Easy Soft has been a legal software leader since 1986. The company offers specialized solutions for real estate, family law, time, billing & trust account management and document automation. More than 15,000 customers nationwide use Easy Soft products to increase office productivity. Visit us on the web at: http://www.easysoft-usa.com

Posted by Rick Kabra on September 23, 2011 in New York Family Law | Comments Off
Technorati Tagged : , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,