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PUBLISHED ARTICLES

LET JUSTICE PREVAIL

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With a wealth of experience, Mr. Galasso has contributed extensively to legal discourse through a collection of thought-provoking articles. We urge that you delve into his diverse array of topics, including child custody, business valuation in divorce, equitable distribution, and more. We also encourage you to explore the nuanced perspectives and practical insights that characterize Mr. Galasso's articles, offerings valuable perspectives for both legal practitioners and individuals navigating the complexities of family law matters.

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In court

Author: Peter J. Galasso 

Published: December 7, 2023 - New York Law Journal

Due to the absence of guidance from the Appellate Division, this argument has yet to gain traction in the minds of judges responsible for the appointment of AFCs for toddlers. To safeguard the integrity of the judiciary and to save our clients a substantial amount of money in the process, this misguided practice needs to end.

Author: Peter J. Galasso 

Published: March 16, 2023 - New York Law Journal

In his most recently published op-ed in the New York Law Journal dated March 16, 2023, Peter propounds that when a child is the victim of parental alienation, the child’s rights and voice may be insidiously muted by the time of trial, which Peter argues urgently necessitates a judge’s preemptive intervention at an in-camera conference.

Virtual Team Meeting

Author: Peter J. Galasso 

Published: September 20, 2021 - New York Law Journal

In this article, Peter describes how the legal profession's virtual practice of law has achieved high grades for both attorneys and their clients.

Counting Yens

Author: Peter J. Galasso 

Published: May 2021 - Nassau Lawyer

This article offers a pragmatic and equitable way the counsel fee issue can be better managed in contentious divorce cases.

Author: Peter J. Galasso, Esq.

Published: May 4, 2020 - New York Law Journal

Peter explains in this NYLJ article how the pandemic has changed the business valuation equation in divorce actions.

Image by Fusion Medical Animation
Image by Stephen Dawson

Authors: Peter J. Galasso, Esq. & Joel A. Rakower, CPANew York State Bar AssociationPracticing Matrimonial and Family Law in Chaotic Economic Times Part IIThis publication was promulgated to members of the New York State Bar Association who attended the statewide continuing legal education lecture series about business valuation which Peter spearheaded with this thoughtful guide for attorneys to follow in navigating their way through the valuation process.

Image by Towfiqu barbhuiya

Author: Peter Galasso
Published: May 2019 - Nassau Lawyer 

Peter explains why it is better to refuse to disclose a wealthy client's income and assets in defending against a child support petition prosecuted on behalf of an out-of wedlock child.

Image by Towfiqu barbhuiya

Author: Peter Galasso

The Suffolk Lawyer - June/July 2018

This article explained how the most subjective aspect of a business valuation methodology impacts the valuation outcome.

Author: Peter Galasso
Family Law Review

Fall 2016 Publication

This "how to" article  offers practitioners Peter's trade secrets in developing their best arguments on the business value to be attributed to a marital business. 

Image by Samson
Image by Alexander Sinn

Author: Peter Galasso
The New York Law Journal

 

Occasionally, the Appellate Division, Second Department, speaks with illuminating clarity. In Palydowycz v. Palydowycz (NYLJ, April 14), it did just that. In doing so, it had to overturn the contrary precedent established in 2010 by an appellate panel composed of its very own members. As Peter explains, in deciding  Palydowycz, the Second Department abandoned a fundamentally logical and commonsensical rule of law that it had embraced for the prior six years. Significant to the divorcing business owners out there, their maintenance payments under Payldowycz are likely to be far greater. To the maintenance payee counterpart, Palydowycz is a cause for celebration. 

Image by Markus Spiske

Author: Peter Galasso

New York Law Journal

Volume 244

Copyright 2010 ALM Media Properties, LLC

Thursday, November 18, 2010

 

In this article Peter explains that in selecting a proper valuation date for an active business asset that needs to be equitably distributed as an incident to a divorce, judges and matrimonial practitioners alike must now recognize they can no longer rigidly apply archaic law to our incontrovertibly new, unpredictable and often volatile economic times.

Image by Mathieu Stern

Author: Peter Galasso, Jeffrey L. Catterson and Joel Rakower

NYSBA Family Law Review | Winter 2008 | Vol. 40 | No. 4

Exhaustive scholarly analyses on the double-dipping,or double-counting, phenomenon have adorned the pages of various legal publications since its initial recognition in McSparron v. McSparron.1 As we all know, in McSparron, the Court of Appeals held that maintenance awards are not to be drawn from the income stream that was relied upon in the calculation of the value of an equitably distributed marital asset.

Author: Peter Galasso

New York Law Journal

Volume 239

Copyright 2008 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved.

Monday, February 25, 2008

In 2008, an unscrupulous New York monied spouse planned to divorce, Peter argued that he should first convince his wife to relocate the family to Connecticut, where child support terminates when the child reaches 18 rather than 21, which is the age of termination in New York. 

Image by Rusty Watson
Image by Itay Peer

Author: Peter Galasso

New New York Law Journal

Copyright 2006

Friday, September 15, 2006

 

Peter argues that the slippery slope of egregious fault which Justice Jacquelline Silbermann expanded from the nearly homicidal conduct depicted in Havell v. Islam, 186 Misc. 2d 726, to the simply unacceptable conduct observed in DeSilva v. DeSilva is an inherently dangerous and misguided precedent which should be universally rebuked rather than lauded by the matrimonial bar. 

Addressing the Court

Author: Peter Galasso

New New York Law Journal

Volume 235

Copyright 2006 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved.

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

At a bench trial, which is a judge's main stage in matrimonials, Peter contents that the prohibition against leading questions of a witness-proponent has become an anachronism.

Image by Eric Ward

Author: Peter Galasso

New York Law Journal

Volume 231

Copyright 2005 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Peter gave high praise to Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye for her ringing endorsement of no-fault divorce (NYLJ, Feb. 8). 

Image by Jp Valery

Author: Peter Galasso

NYSBA Family Law Review

Vol. 36 No. 2

Copyright 2004

Fall 2004

Reminded of Justice Potter Stewart's now and forever famous definition of pornography, "...I know it
when I see it..." Peter's opinion is that beyond the obvious, judges tend to find marital waste only 
when they smell it. With that in mind, this article is intended as a quick refresher on the confounding 
world of marital waste. 

Image by Tingey Injury Law Firm

Author: Peter Galasso

New York Law Journal

Volume 230

Copyright 2003 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved

Friday, July 25, 2003

Here, Peter urges the Appellate Division to write more meaningful appellate decision to letter guide the Bar.

Author: Peter Galasso

New York Law Journal

Letters to the Editor

Copyright 2003

Tuesday, February 4, 2003

 

Peter offers kudos to Timothy M. Tippins for his cutting edge insights into the inequities endorsed by a confused judiciary over its application of Child Support Standards Act (NYLJ, Jan. 15 and 16, page 4). Indeed, in those cases involving a license or practice distribution, the judiciary's oppressive disregard of the actual arithmetic that predicates its awards is daunting. 

Parent and Child
Image by HiveBoxx

Author: Peter Galasso

New York Law Journal

Volume 230

Copyright 2003

Monday, October 20, 2003

If the courts were to adopt the thinking of Philip C. Siegel and Larry A. Cohen, as articulated in their article encouraging 'Forensic Assessments in Custodial Relocation Cases' (NYLJ, Aug. 13, 2003), the cost of virtually every relocation may prove to be too exorbitant for the potentially relocating parent to even bother. Peter argues that

contrary to the authors' view of the world, not every relocation case should ignite a full-blown forensic work-up. 

Image by Joshua Sukoff

Author: Peter Galasso

New York Law Journal

Copyright 2002

Tuesday, May 21, 2002

 

Here, Peter discusses impending legislation that would bar attorneys from compelling the sale of a client's house based upon an unpaid fee.  

Distanced Couple

Author: Peter Galasso and Elayne E. Greenberg

New York Law Journal

Copyright 2000

Friday, November 3, 2000

 

The standards for reviewing applications to set aside the parties' marital agreement have been firmly implanted in the minds of all matrimonial practitioners by the Court of Appeals seminal decision in Christian v. Christian. 

Law

"Author: Peter Galasso

New York Law Journal: Wednesday, July 12, 2000

Letter To The Editor

As a matrimonial lawyer, Peter is a huge believer that something must be done to obviate the “climate of incivility” in the courtroom. However, Peter argues here that Judge Bruce Balter and Michael J. Simone's article (Aug. 25), “How Judges Can Enforce Civility By Punishing Frivolous Conduct” (NYLJ, page 1) is certainly not the answer. Not only is the

line in the sand that separates frivolity from creative lawyering nearly indiscernible, it is the very reason why there are so few reported decisions on that issue. Today's allegedly frivolous argument is not so infrequently tomorrow's laws. 

Image by Mikhail Pavstyuk

Author: Peter Galasso

The Attorney Of Nassau County

May 2000

This article explains how an award of a percentage of the value of a business should impact the amount of maintenance awarded because they are often both based upon the same income stream, thereby giving rise to a double-dipping issue.

Image by Jr Korpa

Author: Peter Galasso

New York Law Journal, Volume 220, Number 45

Copyright 1998 by the New York Law Publishing Company

Wednesday, September 2, 1998

Stanley S. Arkin's June 8 article exploring the “Line Between ‘Negotiation and Extortion’ ” struck a chord familiar to many of us who practice matrimonial law. In virtually every divorce something peculiar, embarrassing or downright humiliating about one of the parties can potentially become the focal point of an advocate's attack. 

 Scales of Justice

Author: Peter Galasso

New York Law Journal

New York Law Publishing Company

Friday, January 3, 1997

 

MONEY IS POWER. Not unexpectedly, its redistribution shifts the balance of that power. Historically, government's primary tools for reallocating wealth had been confined to changes in the tax laws and affirmative action initiatives. Peter explains how the Domestic Relations Law has supplemented those tools.  

Workers Wearing Helmets and Jackets

Author: Peter Galasso

New York Law Journal

Copyright 1997

May 28, 1997

Letters: To the Editor

 

Peter writes here about his concern over this legislation.  

Holding Newborn

Author: Peter Galasso

New York Law Journal

Copyright 1996

August 6, 1996

Letters: To the Editor

 

 While the "court is not a rubber stamp and [its] role in ensuring that the interests of infant plaintiffs are fully protected, is one of the more serious responsibilities presented to the courts'. Peter argues that the Court should leave decisions about how a parent should settle a child's personal injury award to the child's parents. 

Image by Jr Korpa

Author: Peter Galasso

New York Law Journal

Copyright 1995 by The New York Law Publishing Company

Volume 214-NO.53

Thursday, September 14, 1995

Peter contends here that the admission of the testimony of a health care profession that "validates" a toddler's

sex abuse allegations should be forbidden.   

Child at Psychologist

Author: Peter Galasso

To the Editor New York Law Journal

Copyright 1995 by The New York Law Publishing Company

Thursday, June 8. 1995

 

Lost in the recent "Family and the Law" column (NYLJ May 10) analyzing the Court of Appeals' decision in Cassano v. Cassano is the head-shaking astonishment of most matrimonial practitioners over the absence of a nexus between a non-custodial parent's child support obligation and the child's actual need in applying the Child Support Standard Act. 

Image by Saúl Bucio

Author: Peter Galasso

New York Law Journal

Copyright 1994 by The New York Law Publishing Company

Wednesday, November 23, 1994

 

Peter argues that before all hope of arbitrating custody and visitation is lost in the popular discourse of "public policy", 
"parens patriae", and a "child's best interests", the pragmatic voices of the parents affected thereby, 
and who are constitutionally empowered to make the day-to-day decisions involving their children 
must be heard. 

Children coloring

Author: Peter Galasso

New York Law Journal

Volume 211, Number 82

Copyright 1994 by The New York Law Publishing Company

Friday, April 29, 1994

 

Peter contends in this article that in an intact family with parents, who decide that their child or children should not be compelled to visit with their grandparents under DRL§ 72.

Image by Riho Kroll

Author: Peter Galasso

New York Law Journal

Volume 211, Number 82

Copyright 1994 by The New York Law Publishing Company

Friday, April 29, 1994

 

Peter explains how an ill-conceived support can derail a divorce action.

Woman and Column

Author: Peter Galasso

To the Editor New York Law Journal

Volume 201, Number 110

Copyright 1989 by The New York Law Publishing Company

Friday, June 9, 1989

 

Peter illuminates his belief that an annulment is sometimes better than a divorce.

Author: Peter Galasso

To the Editor New York Law Journal

Volume 201, Number 110

Copyright 1989 by The New York Law Publishing Company

October 18, 1989

 

This was Peter's first published work. In it, he trumpets the need for mutual respect between the Judiciary and the Bar.

Image by Aniket Bhattacharya
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