Divorce in NY

Submitted by Steven (United States), Mar 10, 2015 at 18:43

I am an attorney in NY and was recently retained by a woman who appears to have been married in an "Urfi" type situation. The marriage occurred in 1969 and the parties emigrated to the US shortly thereafter and have lived together since then, having 3 children, all adults now. When she approached her husband about a divorce he indicated that she was not entitled to one as they were never legally married. There was no cleric mentioned in the "Contract of Marriage" but there were 2 witnesses. Have any of you ever dealt with something like this?

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