In a recent unpublished (non-precedential) Appellate Division decision, K.W. v. S.W., the Court addressed income, expenses and bad faith within the context of a child support calculation and ongoing custody issue post-divorce judgment. The issues before the Court, in boiled down to their root, were: (1) what to do when a party manipulates their
Vaccination Disputes Between Parents With Joint Legal Custody Are Guided by the Best Interests of the Child
Vaccinations will likely become a hot topic in matters of divorced or separated parents in a post-pandemic world with vaccines now available to children ages 12 and up, and possible younger children in the future. Although not COVID-19 related, it’s pretty timely that an unpublished (non-precedential) decision was just issued regarding divorced parents who disputed
I’m Not a Cat, But Can I Get Divorced Over Zoom Anyway?
One thing this pandemic has taught me about my fellow lawyers: we are adaptable.
Just take the lawyer trapped in a cat filter as an example. Despite his adorable faux pas, his reaction was not to jump off the Zoom call in shame. No – he said to the judge that he was willing to
Alimony Formulas: Yet Another Cautionary Tale
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. Basically, there are two types of formulas that we often see. One takes a percentage of the differences
New Case Inadvertently Serves as a Tip for Couples with Young Children Divorcing/Setting Child Support
The newly unreported (does not set precedent) decision of Covone v. Curreri makes two bold moves: (1) asserting that the passage of time is not a change in circumstance warranting a modification to child support and (2) confirming that the trial court has authority to allocate expenses between parents even without proof of their financial
The Best Interests of the Child Remains the Focus of Name Change Applications
In Z.A. v. R.V., Jr., an unpublished Appellate Division case, meaning not precedential, the Appellate Division ruled that the best interests of the child governs a surname change. This rationale falls squarely with the court’s previous cases that a child’s name change must be evaluated under the best interest standard. Emma v. Evans,
Alienating Your Kids from Their Other Parent May Cost Your Kids Big When it Comes to Child Support and College.
Here in New Jersey, divorced parents are generally obligated to contribute to the college education expenses for their un-emancipated children. In virtually every marital settlement agreement where there are un-emancipated children (the agreement the parties to a divorce enter into in resolution of all of their financial and/or parenting time issues), there is some sort
Appellate Division Clears Up the Alimony Statute Application for Early Retirement in Pre-Amendment Cases
The Appellate Division recently published a decision, Amzler v. Amzler, making it precedent setting on the use of the new alimony statute in a case of a payor’s early retirement, where parties entered into an alimony agreement prior to its enactment in September 2014. While 2014 may feel like years ago because it was,
Two Months of Overnights May Not Definitively Mean Cohabitation, But It Should At Least Get You Discovery
As we have said before, the 2014 amendments to the alimony statute allegedly made it easier to terminate alimony if the recipient of the alimony was cohabiting. The statute now provides that alimony may be terminated or suspended if cohabitation was proven. The statute made clear that the parties didn’t even have to live together
Solving The Puzzle Now Will Hopefully Make For A Less Litigious Future
One of the hardest lessons I learned in my early days of practicing family law is that a case is never really over when we think it’s over. I remember walking out of my first uncontested hearing so proud that I helped finalize a client’s divorce, emotional for their loss (yes, it happened to be