WHEN TO SERVE NOTICE OF GUIDELINE MAINTENANCE

DRL 236 Part B (5-a) (e) (3) provides:

"Where either or both parties are unrepresented, the court shall not enter a temporary maintenance order unless the unrepresented party or parties have been informed of the presumptive award of temporary maintenance"

Thus by Administrative Order of January 14, 2016 (http://www.nycourts.gov/divorce/pdfs/AO0004_16.pdf), a new form was prescribed for inclusion in the Uncontested Form Packet:

Notice of Guideline Maintenance (https://www.nycourts.gov/divorce/forms_instructions/NoticeGuidelineMaintenance.pdf)


Because there are times when one does not know if the other side is represented or not or whether appearing pro se shall be deemed to be unrepresented, it may be a better practice to include this notice in the Summons along with the automatic orders (DRL 236, Part B (2)) and Health Care notice (DRL 255 (1)).