Blog Posts in May, 2017

Homework and Parenting Time - M.C. and P.C.

Dividing parenting time and parenting responsibilities can be complicated following a divorce or separation. Every parent just wants what is best for their children, and in the optimal situations, parents work together to work out co-parenting issues. These situations include the normal day-to-day issues of scheduling, extra-curricular activities, medical, and religious decisions. Among these ...

Step-Parents and Divorce

Step-parents occupy a special and unique place for children. They are not the parent, but they are an essential part of day-to-day life. In the optimal situation, the step-parent creates a strong bond with the children, and loves the children as his or her own. Providing a larger support network and more people to help children grow and learn. Unfortunately, second marriages sometimes fail, just ...

Use of Technology in Custody Orders

Technology infiltrates almost every aspect of our daily lives. We use e-mail, social media, Google searches, smartphones, tablets, and an enormous amount of other platforms and hardware items to connect both for work and social purposes. A prime purpose for the use of technology is to remain connected to friends and family who we do not see every day. In custody orders, technology can help parents ...

Social Media, Post-Divorce, and Child Custody

Millions of people engage in the use of social media every day. We use it to stay in touch with friends and family across the country. Some use it just to share pictures, while others are more involved and share details of their day-to-day life. It is not unusual for some people to turn to social media as a way to express frustration and anger during difficult periods in their life, particularly ...

Social Security Benefits and Divorce

Most couples work to keep an eye on their financial future. Saving for retirement and building a nest egg is a years-long endeavor. In addition to investments and pensions, many people also rely on Social Security retirement benefits to supplement their income during their retirement and help make ends meet. Following a divorce, finances may become tight, especially as investment accounts and ...

College Funds and Divorce

Many parents recognize the importance of a college education. To that end, they often start saving for their children’s college educations years before the child is even old enough to enter high school. Financial assets accumulated during the marriage are subject to equitable distribution in divorce, and New Jersey states that marital assets will be equitably divided. When parents have spent years ...

Domestic Partnership Basics

In 2004, New Jersey passed a law called the Domestic Partnership Act. This law held that same-sex couples who were over the age of eighteen could enter into a domestic partnership. The law also allowed for opposite-sex couples who were over the age of sixty-two to enter into a domestic partnership. However, in 2007, New Jersey passed another law called the Civil Union Act, which changed the ...

Is Collaborative Law Right for My Case?

The vast majority of cases settle out of court, and family law cases are no exception. Reaching a settlement agreement on your divorce matter can save you and your spouse money, time, and frustration. One tool used to help parties reach a settlement is called collaborative divorce. Collaborative divorce is a new approach to litigation. The idea behind collaborative divorce is that the spouses and ...

Postnuptial Basics

Prenuptial agreements are well known and most people have heard of them, especially in terms of celebrities or the ultra-wealthy. Less well known is an equally useful, if somewhat complicated, document called a post nuptial agreement. As is suggested by the name, post nuptial agreements are entered into by spouses after they have already gotten married. A postnuptial agreement has many things in ...

Prenuptial Basics

At the beginning of a marriage, no one wants to think about it ending in divorce. Most couples prefer to focus on the positives of getting married and the future together. Some prospective spouses prefer to plan for the unfortunate possibility of divorce, and so will choose to hire an attorney to draft a prenuptial agreement. A prenuptial agreement is essentially a contact between potential ...

Dealing with and Unreasonable Opponent

Any type of family law case is often fraught with high emotions, and this can sometimes bring out the worst in people. Even when people have been reasonable in the past, the anger and hurt feelings can suddenly turn him or her into an irrational individual who refuses to listen to reason. There are important steps you can take to sidestep or deal with illogical and arbitrarily poor behavior from ...

When Discovery Requests Go Too Far

Discovery is an essential part of most family law cases. This process comprises many parts. Discovery can be conducted in writing, by way of interrogatories (i.e. questions) or requests for documents, or it could be done in person, by way of depositions. Regardless of the manner, discovery requests can be quite broad. A litigant may ask any question or request any document that is reasonably ...

Destruction of Property and Dissipation of Assets in Divorce

In New Jersey, all marital property is subject to an equitable distribution by the court in the event of a divorce. “Equitable distribution” is a legal term, and the court will consider a large number of factors when deciding how much of the marital estate each party will receive, ranging from the debts of the parties to whether one spouse was traditionally a stay-at-home parent. Divorces will ...

Conditional Gifts - Engagement and Wedding Rings

At the conclusion of a marriage, the New Jersey court will determine an equitable distribution of any marital property. Property that is marital is typically the property that was acquired during the marriage. Any property that was acquired before the marriage (or sometimes during the marriage under special circumstances) is typically separate property and is not subject to distribution in the ...

Visitation and Parent Unavailability

In the midst of a child custody dispute, the most common concerns are who will be the primary custodian and how the child’s time be divided between the two households. Custody orders are usually structured around the idea that during visitation, a parent will be spending the majority or his or her time with the child, barring the time that is necessary for work or school. Custody orders rarely ...