Dating apps are the most popular place to find people to date. As a divorce attorney, I hear many anecdotes from clients or former clients who met their new partner on a dating app. However, there are a few considerations...more
It is no secret that a lot of people in America are living alone and while many have been in one or more serious relationships those never culminated in marriage. Meanwhile, these people accumulate assets but often don’t pay...more
In 1980 Pennsylvania revised its 1929 Divorce Code and for the first time allowed post divorce alimony. It was a tough legislative battle with conservative forces professing concern that divorce would become ubiquitous. One...more
Last month we posted about a new Supreme Court decision seeking to keep paternity by estoppel alive. This week brings us a precedential case from the Superior Court that illustrates just how chaotic this attempt to...more
When drafted and adopted as law in the 1980 Divorce Code, Section 706 (now 3706) was disarmingly simple. It said, 706. Bar to alimony - No petitioner is entitled to receive an award of alimony where the petitioner,...more
If you are paying or receiving alimony, you should be aware of recent changes and clarifications to the burden of proof required to make a prima facie case of cohabitation. If you are paying alimony to a former spouse, it...more
The Israeli Supreme Court recently handed down an important ruling addressing the issue of division of property between common-law spouses. Specifically, the ruling changes the “presumption of property sharing” arrangement...more
Last week brought us a panel decision of the Superior Court in Humphrey v. Ross, not to be confused with the epic child support battle Humphreys v. DeRoss. The facts are kind of typical. Non marital relationship produces a...more
Despite the Appellate Division decision in the Temple case in 2021 that seemingly made it easier to show a prima facie case of cohabitation necessary to get discovery and perhaps terminate or suspend alimony, as I blogged on...more
Jian Tang and Robert Campbell met in May 2016 on Match.com., an online dating site. Things appear to have progressed nicely. They began to live together and in March 2017, Campbell came forth with a proposal of marriage. Not...more
Who’s your father for inheritance purposes in California? Family Code section 7540(a) states that “the child of spouses who cohabited at the time of conception and birth is conclusively presumed to be a child of the...more
Many divorced clients ask if they can stop making alimony payments if they suspect their former spouse is cohabiting. The answer, simply, is it depends....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
I have previously blogged about Committed Intimate Relationships (“CIR”) and how courts handle them at the trial level . In addition, CIR have also been reviewed by the Appellate and Supreme Court of Washington....more
In a prior blogpost, I discussed Washington State’s Committed Intimate Relationship Doctrine (“CIR”) and outlined the five non-exclusive factors courts consider in determining whether a CIR existed:...more
For decades, cohabitation was grounds to at least get a review of alimony. When the alimony statute was amended in 2014, almost 8 years ago, the revisions made it easier for alimony payors to get out from under their alimony...more
Over the years, I have written a lot on palimony cases, both before and after the landmark Maeker v. Ross case that I argued in the New Jersey Supreme Court. On March 8, 2022, I blogged on the Supreme Court’s decision in the...more
In a divorce, the judge will have to divide your marital property and debts between the spouses. The division must be “just and equitable” under the circumstances of the relationship. But can an unmarried couples receive a...more
The Pew Research Center issued a report today titled by its conclusion. “Rising Shares of U.S. Adults are Living Without a Spouse or Partner.” The study utilized data from 2019 and found that it is isn’t just marriage that’s...more
In the precedent-setting case Landau v. Landau, decided by the Superior Court of New Jersey Appellate Division in September 2019, the Court held that the 2014 statutory amendments to New Jersey’s alimony statute, which...more
Six years, nine months and 7 days following the enactment of New Jersey’s amended alimony statute’s cohabitation provision on September 10, 2014 (N.J.S.A. 2A:32-23n) the New Jersey Appellate Division provided long awaited and...more
Many people think that palimony is just alimony with a “P” and that the mere existence of a long term unmarried relationship, where the people live together, is enough to convey some right of support. Having argued the...more
Back in March of this year when the first lockdown began, there were news reports of people electing to quarantine together, if for no other reason, than to avoid isolation. In some instances, it was to give a forming...more