The Rules of Court clearly allow a Family Part Judge to appoint their own expert on any issues, whether custody or economic issues, in order to aid the court in making a decision on an issue before the Court. The Court rule...more
Last week, I blogged about the new statute that closed the block hole that existed when a party who held most or all of the assets died during while a divorce was pending. Specifically, the new statute permits the court to...more
What happens when a party dies in the middle of divorce? Under the law, the divorce action abates and the matter is over. In many cases, that is to the benefit of the surviving spouse because, in most cases, they would...more
On November 14, 2023, the Appellate Division decided an interesting case that implicated the intersection of family law, estate law and federal law. The reported (precedential) decision In the Matter of the Estate of Michael...more
Yesterday, I posted the Top 10 Posts in 2022 on our NJ Family Law Blog as measured by page views. Aside from publishing the posts directly on our blog, the posts are also shared on a content aggregator, JD Supra which...more
The end of the year is the time for holiday merriment and top 10 lists. As a kid, I used to love to listen to Casey Kasem’s countdown of the top songs of the year. So I decided to do a top 10 list related to posts on this...more
12/20/2022
/ Alimony ,
Child Custody ,
Child Support Modification ,
Co-Parenting ,
Cohabitation ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Divorce ,
Equitable Distribution ,
Family Businesses ,
Hedge Funds ,
Marital Assets ,
Marital Settlement Agreements ,
Name Changes ,
Parenting Plans ,
Parenting Time ,
Transgender ,
Vaccinations
Every now and then, you read a case and just scratch your head. I have been doing this for 30 years and I get how emotional the divorce process can be. I get that some people just don’t want to get divorced, while at the same...more
For more than twenty years, the case of Brown v. Brown, decided by the Appellate Division in 2002, essentially changed the standard of value in divorce cases from fair market value to fair value or fair market value without...more
While there are always exceptions to the rule, unlike most other assets, though I have seen it happen, businesses are rarely divided 50-50. Yet there is very little case law that explains why this is. In fact, until...more
When parties settle their cases, many if not most, expect that their agreement that they spent months or years negotiation will finally provide them with some peace. After all, if someone agrees to do something in an...more
The Family Court in New Jersey is a court of equity. Accordingly, old, if not ancient “equitable principles” or maxims are supposed to apply. One such maxim is that he who seeks equity must do equity. Over the course of...more
1/24/2022
/ Creditors ,
Divorce ,
Equitable Distribution ,
Failure to Comply ,
Hedge Funds ,
Marital Estate ,
Marital Settlement Agreements ,
Modification ,
Motion to Compel ,
Settlement ,
Unclean Hands
Last week, I blogged on the A.J.V. v. M.M.V. case, specifically, regarding the retroactive application of a savings component. As noted in the post, there was an interesting treatment of deferred compensation in the...more
Prior to the walk down the aisle for the happiest day of their lives – to that point – many hopeless romantics decide (or are required by their parents) to get a prenuptial agreement which set forth many of their rights and...more
Over the last several weeks, via emails, attending webinars and otherwise, I have frequently heard that the coronavirus may create significant estate planning opportunities. In fact, while writing this post, I Googled...more
The issue of the division of deferred compensation in divorce – more particularly, unvested deferred compensation, is often one that is hotly disputed. This is in part because there is not a lot of case law on the issue. ...more
In 2014, I authored a post on this blog entitled Stern Revisited – Using the Shareholder Agreement to Determine Value. I noted then that it seemed that after the Appellate Division’s decision in Brown v. Brown which changed...more