Under the guise of the concept that “it costs more to live in two houses than it does one” or “when parties are living separate, they both can’t continue to enjoy the marital lifestyle”, very often, when deciding pendente...more
More and more, we have seen medical practices bought up by hospitals, large medical groups and venture capitalists who combine the practices into mega-practices or networks. In those cases, often one doctor in a group has no...more
Typically, divorce cases are handled by the court on the “FM” docket and cases involving people that weren’t married but have children together are handled on the “FD” or non-dissolution docket. Despite the fact that a...more
Frequently, judicial opinions cite the cases that say settlement of disputes ranks high in New Jersey’s public policy. Accordingly, it is very difficult to get a trial court to set aside, and most of the time, a motion to...more
Sadly, serious fractures in a parent-child relationship come up frequently in our practice. Sometimes, it is because of a parent’s self-destructive conduct (e.g. drug or alcohol addiction, abuse, untreated mental illness,...more
As we have written before, alternate dispute resolution is a favored way to resolve divorce matters, whether it be mediation or binding arbitration. One reason that people choose the arbitration route is that they are...more
So you are in court or maybe on a conference with a judge and you make a factual statement about the other side. Maybe it is about some less than stellar conduct of the other party. Maybe it is about a violation of an Order....more
You see it all of the time. Someone file a motion with the court regarding discovery and/or asking for various pendente lite relief, like temporary support, temporary parenting time and other things that come up during the...more
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
While the issue of savings being a component of alimony has been around for decades, since the Lombardi case in 2016 (which we previously blogged about), the issue of a savings component, especially where parties live...more
In January 2020, the Appellate Division considered an important question: how should a judge assess a party’s request to appear at a trial and present testimony by way of video transmission? The timing of this consideration...more
5/14/2021
/ Appellate Courts ,
Bifurcation ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Domestic Violence ,
Due Process ,
Pro Se Litigants ,
Remote Hearings ,
Restraining Orders ,
Telecommunications ,
Videoconference ,
Virtual Litigation ,
Witnesses ,
Zoom®
I have seen this more than one time in my career. One party (or his/her family members) really wants there to be a prenuptial agreement but, either due to lack of time, fear/cowardice, not having your act together, or any...more
5/3/2021
/ Child Support ,
Civil Unions ,
Declaratory Judgments ,
Disclosure ,
Duress ,
Inheritance ,
Life Insurance ,
Marital Assets ,
Marriage ,
Prenuptial Agreements ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Spouses
There used to be a family judge, who, with his law clerk, spent a lot of time on Google, looking up property records, Zillow “values” and other information regarding the parties and their property. While most of the time it...more
A lot of people believe that COVID has caused divorce cases to drag and the legal system to be ground to a halt – or at least, to lag behind. While that is certainly the case in some counties and more particularly, with some...more
3/12/2021
/ Appellate Courts ,
Arbitration ,
Binding Arbitration ,
Case Management ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Court Closures ,
Divorce ,
Evidence ,
Eyewitness Testimony ,
Family Law Courts ,
Mediation ,
Settlement Conferences ,
Zoom®
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
For many divorce attorneys, the busy season starts after the first of the year. For the last several years, I have posted on the phenomenon of the New Year’s Resolution Divorce. For whatever reason, this post has struck a...more
Victims of abuse have many reasons for not reporting prior acts of domestic violence – either to friends, family, co-workers, etc. or the police. Logically, the failure to report does not negate the fact that the abuse...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
More than 11 years ago, I wrote a post on this blog entitled The Abuse and Misuse of the Domestic Violence Statute. From the statistics, we can see that this is still one of the most read items we have published, because the...more
We see it all of the time. The support (alimony and child support) obligor’s income is made up of multiple components – typically salary, bonus and/or deferred compensation. In cases where the bonus/deferred comp makes up...more
Very often, uncertified expert reports are attached to certifications and courts are asked to accept them though there is no ability to cross examine the expert, etc. Sometimes, that even happens at a default or other...more
Many people opt for binding arbitration because it is supposedly faster and cheaper, and binding – thus final. Some people have to arbitrate their matters that they cannot settle amongst themselves, because there are issues...more
Over the years, I have blogged about alimony formulas, “rules of thumb” and similar ways that alimony is settled. I say settled, because in most instances, courts are not allowed to use a formula to determine alimony. ...more
Two common questions I hear from potential clients, as well as the general public, are (1) are the courts open and (2) can people even file new matters (divorce, enforcement, modification, etc.) Some express shock when then...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