For many divorce attorneys, the busy season starts after the first of the year. Since practically the inception of this blog, I have posted on the phenomenon of the New Year’s Resolution Divorce. For whatever reason, this...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
Almost like King Solomon suggesting that a child be cut in two so that each parent can have half, more and more, I am hearing about judges and custody evaluators who default to 50-50 shared parenting. Now, that isn’t the law....more
As I noted last month, there is a new court rule for parent coordinators effective September 1, 2023. At the time, they had not yet published the Guidelines. Yesterday, Directive 16-23 was published. Attached to the notice,...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
From the earliest days of this blog in 2008, one of my frequent topics has been the use of parent coordinators. Originally, there was a Pilot Program instituted by the Supreme Court for use of parent coordinators. At the...more
It should come as no surprise that after the end of a relationship, people sometimes do bad things to the former love of their life. Really, it’s a tale as old as time. But what if, as an act of retaliation, a party makes a...more
The issue of gifting comes up with some frequency in family law cases. Generally, gifts from third parties that are not subsequently commingled are exempt from equitable distribution. Parties also make gifts to children and...more
I have written a bunch on this blog about the use of parent coordinators. In fact, one of the most read blog posts on this blog, almost 4 years after it was initially published, is titled The Futility of Parent Coordination...more
From time to time, we have written regarding pet custody, though there is very little case law on the issue. Historically, pets were treated as chattel (property) and courts did not enter custody and visitation orders for...more
I still hear people call the 2014 Amendments to the alimony statute “the new statute.” Almost 9 years later, it is no longer new. That said, since that time, there is still not a lot of law interpreting it other than several...more
Parental alienation cases are hard. They are hard for the alienated parent. They are hard on the Judge, who may not have the tools or the time to effectively deal with the problem and/or otherwise, initially dismiss the...more
For many divorce attorneys, the busy season starts after the first of the year. Since practically the inception of this blog, I have posted on the phenomenon of the New Year’s Resolution Divorce. For whatever reason, this...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
I have blogged many times about the fact that there is no formula for alimony, and moreover, whenever a trial court imposes a formula, it is always reversed by the Appellate Division. In 2020, I blogged on the last reported...more
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
The proliferation of genetic testing, where you buy a kit and then send away saliva or scrapings from your cheek, to get your genetic history has certainly lead to many unintended consequences....more
Often, people resolve the issue of the marital home with one party buying the other out. While people often agree on the value of a home to use to calculate the buyout, sometimes, they can’t agree. In that case, people often...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
When the alimony statute was modified in 2014, aside from making 67 the presumptive, good faith retirement age, it also included multiple standards for the court to consider when a party sought to terminate or modify alimony...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
Seems pretty obvious that if a court is going to explain the ramifications of the right to have counsel in a domestic violence matter and the ramifications of the entry of a finding of domestic violence and the entry of a...more
The law in New Jersey regarding palimony continues to incrementally evolve, as I have blogged about in the past. A few years ago, I argued the Maeker v. Ross case in the New Jersey Supreme Court....more