A 3-1 appeals court upheld the denial of counsel fees to the wife in a divorce case, finding that it had to decide the issue under the Domestic Relations Law that existed at the time the divorce action was filed in August 2010 and not the amended statute that took effect in October 2010.
The court held that Supreme Court Justice Joseph Teresi was within his discretion when he determined that Christine LaPlante was not entitled to attorney fees from her ex-husband. The older statute left the decision to the “sound discretion of the trial court,” the Appellate Division, Third Department, ruled in LaPlante v. LaPlante, 518329.
