R 515.Venue in matrimonial actions.

Divorce and custody cases don't fit neatly into the venue rules built for ordinary civil litigation, so CPLR 515 carves out its own rule. It applies to actions where all or part of the relief sought is a divorce, annulment, or declaration that a marriage is a nullity, to supreme court custody and visitation actions and modifications, to post-divorce distribution of marital property following a judgment from another jurisdiction, and to proceedings after a divorce judgment has already been entered.

For any of those matters, venue lies in a county where either spouse resides, or, if the marriage produced minor children, in the county where one of those children resides. That gives a party more than one option, unlike the residency-based venue rules that apply to most other civil actions. The section carves out its own exception, too: when an address involved isn't a matter of public record, or is protected by a confidentiality order under the domestic relations law or the family court act, the plaintiff can instead pick venue under the general designation rule in CPLR 509.

Even when none of the listed counties applies, CPLR 515 doesn't shut the courthouse door. On a showing of good cause, made by motion or order to show cause, the court can let the case proceed before it anyway, notwithstanding the venue rule that would otherwise control.