Free New York Divorce Tools

Free Tools for Your New York Divorce

Three tools built for New York law by Brian D. Perskin & Associates, a Brooklyn and Manhattan divorce firm with more than thirty years of trial experience. Price out your case, draft a parenting plan, and run the state support formulas. No email required, no sign-up, nothing sold on.

Start here

Which tool do you need

Most people need more than one, and the order matters. Pick the line below that sounds most like your situation and we will tell you where to start and what to run next.

Where are you right now?

The tools

Three tools, three questions

Each one answers a different question, and each one produces something you can take to a consultation, a mediator or the other side's attorney.

What will this cost

Divorce Cost Estimator

Prices a New York divorce from the issues you are actually fighting about, rather than quoting a national average that includes states with no-fault filing fees a fraction of ours. Court fees are the small, predictable part of the bill. What moves the number is how many issues stay in dispute and how long they stay there.

  • You enterWhich issues are contested, whether you expect to litigate or mediate, assets and business interests, whether experts are likely
  • You getA range for your case, a breakdown by cost driver, the current 2026 court filing fees, and the specific choices that are pushing your figure up
  • TakesAbout five minutes
  • Best forAnyone deciding whether to file, budgeting for the year, or weighing mediation against litigation
What will the arrangement look like

Parenting Plan Builder

A nine-step builder that drafts a complete New York parenting plan in numbered articles. Ten schedules, each scored against your children's ages, your commute and how much conflict there is. It dates the whole year, applies the holidays, and tells you where a judge or opposing counsel is likely to push back before you file it.

  • You enterNumber and ages of children, distance between homes, work patterns, holiday preferences, exchange arrangements, legal custody and tiebreak choices
  • You getA printable drafted plan, your parenting time split in overnights, a dated twelve-month calendar attached as Schedule B with holidays named, and a court-readiness check
  • TakesFifteen to twenty minutes
  • Best forParents negotiating a schedule, preparing for mediation, or getting a draft in front of the other parent
What will I pay or receive

Maintenance and Child Support Calculator

Runs both New York formulas, the spousal maintenance guideline and the Child Support Standards Act percentages, on your actual incomes. It applies the statutory income cap, the advisory duration bands for maintenance, and the CSSA percentages on combined parental income rather than on the payor's income alone, which is where most online calculators get New York wrong.

  • You enterBoth incomes, length of marriage, number of children, and which parent has the majority of overnights
  • You getA guideline maintenance amount with its advisory duration band, a basic child support obligation, and how the two interact
  • TakesTwo to three minutes
  • Best forAnyone negotiating support, testing whether a demand is reasonable, or deciding whether an existing order is worth moving to modify

How they fit together

Run them in this order

The three tools feed each other. The parenting plan produces the overnight count the support calculator needs, and the issues you resolve in the plan are the same issues that drive the cost estimate. Running them in order takes about half an hour and leaves you with a budget, a draft schedule and two support figures.

1

Set the budget

Start with the cost estimator. It tells you what the whole case is likely to run and, more usefully, which disputes are the expensive ones. That changes what you choose to fight about.

2

Settle the schedule

If you have children, the parenting plan builder comes next. New York measures parenting time in overnights, and the split it produces is the number the support formula needs.

3

Run the numbers

Take the overnight split into the support calculator. Which parent is the payor under the CSSA depends on who has the majority of overnights, so the schedule has to come first.

A note on step three that catches people out. An equal or near-equal schedule does not cancel child support in New York. The parent with the higher income generally remains the payor, and the percentages still apply. If you have been told otherwise, run the calculator before you agree to anything.

Find your situation

Suggested starting points. Most situations call for more than one tool, and the order in the right-hand column is the one that produces the fewest surprises.
Your situation Start with Then run
Considering divorce, no children Cost estimator Maintenance calculator, if the marriage was long enough or the incomes are far apart
Considering divorce, with children Cost estimator Parenting plan builder, then the support calculator
Custody is the main dispute Parenting plan builder Support calculator, using the overnight split the plan produces
Negotiating or disputing a support amount Support calculator Cost estimator, to see whether the gap is worth the fight
Asking the court to modify an existing order Support calculator Parenting plan builder, if the schedule is changing too
Uncontested or mediated, agreed on most issues Cost estimator Parenting plan builder if there are children, to put the agreement in writing
Just served with divorce papers Cost estimator Support calculator, so you know the guideline figures before the first conference

Questions about these tools

Are these tools free, and do I have to give you my email?

All three are free and none of them asks for an email address, a phone number or a name before showing you a result. You can run them, print the output and never hear from us. If you want to talk to an attorney about what the numbers mean, the option is there, but it is a choice rather than a toll gate.

How accurate are the results?

The support calculator applies the statutory formulas directly, so the guideline figures it produces are the figures a court starts from. What it cannot do is predict a deviation. Judges can and do depart from the guideline where it would be unjust or inappropriate, and the maintenance duration bands are advisory rather than binding. The cost estimator produces a range rather than a quote, because the single biggest variable is how long the other side stays in dispute. The parenting plan builder drafts real clause language, but it drafts a starting document for discussion, not an executed agreement.

Can I use the parenting plan the builder produces as my actual agreement?

Use it as a draft. It is written in numbered articles with real New York clause language, which makes it a strong starting point for mediation or for a conversation with the other parent. To become binding it needs to be signed and acknowledged in the form required for a deed, and then incorporated into a court order or judgment. Have a licensed New York attorney review it before you sign anything.

Will you see what I enter?

The calculations run in your browser. Nothing you type is submitted to us unless you choose to contact the firm, and nothing is stored against your name. You can close the tab and the figures are gone, which is also why you should print or save a result you want to keep.

Do these tools work for Brooklyn, Manhattan and the other boroughs?

Yes. The support formulas are state law and apply identically across New York. The parenting plan builder is more specific than that: it uses the New York City public school calendar, including the February midwinter recess, Lunar New Year and Diwali closures, so the dated calendar it produces reflects the days your children will actually be out of school. Our offices are in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

These tools provide general information about New York law and produce estimates and drafts for discussion. They do not constitute legal advice, and using them does not create an attorney-client relationship with Brian D. Perskin & Associates, P.C. Every case turns on facts a calculator cannot see. Review any result with a licensed New York attorney before you rely on it.

Have a number and not sure what it means

A guideline figure tells you where a court starts. What it does not tell you is where your case is likely to end up, which depends on facts no formula captures. Bring your results to a strategy call and we will tell you, plainly, what we think happens next.

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