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A contested divorce is a case in which the parties cannot reach agreement over the marital issues - residential custody, legal custody (decision-making for the children), child support, spousal maintenance, equitable distribution of marital property.

When both parties agree to get an uncontested divorce, they have already agreed to settle all of their issues - custodial and financial - and agree that they will cooperate with the divorce process and will both sign all of the requisite documents for submission to the Court.

Mediation addresses and resolves the various issues in a divorce and family law disputes. Mediation is a positive, amicable, and sensible alternative to litigation.

In New York, child custody has two major components. One is residential custody, which refers to where and with which parent the child shall reside. The other is legal custody, which refers to the legal decision-making relationship that the parents have over decisions for the child. 

In the New York Family Court syetem, the law that governs child support is called the Child Support Standards Act and is found in the Family Court Act Section 413 (1-b). This law provides the formula and guidelines, through which the appropriate amount of child support is calculated.

The Family Court Act provides that an Order of Protection can be sought in a Family Court by members of the same family, by parties who have a child in common, and people who are in, or have had an "intimate relationship". An intimate relationship is defined in the New York caselaw. There are two kinds of protective orders: Stay Away orders and Refrain From orders.