Free Divorce Records Complete Details

By Claire Dowell


It is the task of the New York State Department of Health and each county Clerk's office to safeguard Divorce Records New York. Both public offices can provide you with divorce documents dating back to January 1, 1963. However, if what you want to locate is a document of a divorce before January 1, 1963, you can only secure that at the Clerk's office.

There are two kinds of divorce record in New York: one is a divorce decree and the other is a divorce certificate. A divorce decree is a record that contains all the terms and agreement of the divorce. They cannot be accessed by just any person because the details in it are considered confidential. Only the husband, the wife, their respective attorneys, or any other group or individual that has an authorization from the court can access divorce decrees. A divorce certificate on the other hand contains vital details such as the name of the couple, their respective birthdays, their home address, and the place and date where the divorce was granted, to name a few.

To secure a divorce document, you can visit the State Department of Health or the Clerk's office. There are various ways of making a request, namely: through mail, online, or the telephone. You will be charged differently depending on which way of requesting you opt to use. You can pay the fees through money order, a check, or you can use a credit card. It will take some time before you can get the results, usually reaching several weeks. But if you want the process to be faster, you can opt for a priority handling for an extra charge. If you wish to secure the divorce documents of another individual, you do not need to get their permission. However, you will only be granted limited access to the documents. Thankfully, the pieces of information that will be revealed to you are enough to prove if a divorce is final or not.

A divorce record is required should a divorcee wish to marry again in the future. Without it, a marriage license will not be granted, and subsequently, any marriage that a divorcee will be involved in will become null and void. The record can also be used to claim assets and properties from a past marriage.

Aside from government offices, you can also obtain the records through online service providers that cater to providing them to the public. There is no need to worry about legality issues because they have the consent of the court to do what they are doing. However, it is vital that you check the background of a certain service provider before choosing to avail its services. As much as there are legit service providers, there are also fake service providers. A legit service provider is one that can provide you with genuine information. It should also have a credible track record and that can be determined based on what other users are saying about them.

Are Divorce Records Public? They are certainly are. That is because they are considered as part of the public domain. And records that are part of the public domain can be accessed by any member of the general public if they wish to do so. However, there are certain protocols that need to be followed in terms of how the files should and can be used and anyone who does not observe them shall suffer corresponding penalties.




About the Author: