Unlawfully issuing a dissolution decree · as in force on May 31, 2026
§ 255.05 Unlawfully issuing a dissolution decree.
A person is guilty of unlawfully issuing a dissolution decree when, not being a judicial officer authorized to issue decrees of divorce or annulment, he issues a written instrument reciting or certifying that he or some other purportedly but not actually authorized person has issued a valid decree of civil divorce, annulment or other dissolution of a marriage.
Unlawfully issuing a dissolution decree is a class A misdemeanor.
A person who is not a judicial officer authorized to grant divorce or annulment commits this offense by issuing a writing that claims the person or another unauthorized person issued a valid civil divorce, annulment, or other marriage-dissolution decree. It is a class A misdemeanor. ★
Marked in the text: penalties, time limits, sums of money. Editorial emphasis added by this edition; it does not appear in the statute as enacted.
This provision appears in Volume 4 — The Court Clerk: Penal Law; Volume 1 — The Court Officer in Plain English; Volume 3 — The Court Officer: Penal Law; Volume 3 — Your Career: Penal Law in Plain English.