[NY] Divorce proceedings between my parents continue to be delayed/postponed, causing my mom to be in financial distress

First time poster, 30’s male who’s been on the sidelines of my parents (in their 60s) divorce for past 4.5 years. Dad was the sole household earner, got caught in a years-long affair, lots of $$ spent in marital waste. Mom was stay-at-home, raised 3 kids and occasionally worked in dad’s office. Legal fees for both sides have been dad’s responsibility from the start. First 3-plus years have been spent on forensic accounting, splitting up assets (house, shared business etc).

Marital court proceedings led to divorce being filed in Oct 2023, finalized/approved in Feb 2024. Dad was mandated to start making monthly payments to mom for shared property in Oct 2023, but did not start until a year later in Oct 2024. Since then, he has been paying but not making up for missed payments (plus interest). He was also mandated to cash in life insurance policies and transfer annuities, plus half his pension- hasn’t done those either. Letters between attorneys have gone back and forth, with dad continuing to delay, deny, even disappear (there was a ~4 month period of time last year when even HIS lawyer couldn’t get in touch, and was owed >$20k for retainer fees!)

Having exhausted all other options, mom filed contempt of court, which led to an initial scheduled appearance in May of this year. Both parties were expected to show at that appearance- only mom showed go. At that appearance, judge gave dad another 1 months with next appearance set for 06/09. At that appearance, again only mom showed up, but was not even given a chance to speak with judge. Lawyers for both sides did speak in private with judge— as per mom’s lawyer, judge asked “why can’t you work things out among the four of you?!” To which mom’s lawyer said- “that’s why we’re here, because [dad] won’t cooperate!” Result of this was judge kicking the can down the road another two months- next appearance set for early August.

So… my questions for this thread include the following:

• if there’s continued non-cooperation by dad, what repercussions can we expect (or perhaps we need to push for?!) ..is there an avenue to press for the threat of jail time for contempt if this continues?
• a concern of mine has been that mom’s attorneys are all too happy for this to just be continued ad infinitem, because $$ (sorry to any lawyers in here if this sounds cynical!) …could this actually be the case? And if so, what can my mom say to push toward getting these proceedings to conclude?
• any advice for specific things to say/do in the next couple weeks, before that next court appearance?

Any insight, advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated 🙏