In the wake of the September 10, 2014 amendments to N.J.S.A. 2A:34-23, the legislature clarified the circumstances under which an alimony payor’s obligation can be modified or terminated due to the obligor’s intended or actual retirement. Under the statute as amended, when faced with an obligor’s application to modify or terminate alimony due to good
What Does Your Divorce Have in Common with Halloween? A SPOOOOOOOOOOKY Comparison.
All Hallow’s Eve is upon us. All month long, I have watched my favorite Halloween movies (Hocus Pocus, anyone?), visited haunted houses, carved my Jack-O-Lantern, and engaged in all the usual Halloween festivities. But it occurred to me: the scariest thing that many of my clients will go through in their lives is their divorce.
Should You Settle Your Retirement Alimony Case?
There has been much ado about the new alimony statute. Obligors believe they are now in the driver’s seat when it comes to disposing of their alimony obligations. After all, the statute sends a message that alimony should at least be modified upon reaching full retirement age. Doesn’t it?
On the other hand, recipients believe
Credibility is Always Key
A few months ago, I posted a blog “Mind Your Manners” about how a party’s attitude may play a role in a judicial determination. This issue arises again in the recent unpublished decision of Sahai v. Sahai, confirming again that credibility is key in litigation.
In Sahai, the appellant/ex-husband appealed a trial court orders
A Checklist for Your Custody and Parenting Time Wish List
A judge’s favorite line when custody is an issue is some variation of the following: No one is better equipped to make decisions about your children than their two parents, and certainly not the judge who does not know your family from the next family in line. They are not wrong, and they will do
Parenting Time: Who Drives the Kids for Visitation?
Once a parenting time schedule is established, parents’ next concern is the logistics with pick-up and drop-off. Even with a parenting time schedule memorialized issues arise: lateness, inconvenient locations, interference with children’s activities, etc. Most times these issues can be resolved amicably without judicial intervention. But occasionally an application must be filed with the Court
Appellate Division Reverses Trial Court’s Denial of Payor’s Motion to Terminate Alimony in Unique Cohabitation Scenario
Demonstrating yet again that cohabitation cases are almost always a creature of their specific facts and circumstances, the Appellate Division in the recently unpublished, Salvatore v. Salvatore, reversed a trial court’s decision denying a payor former husband’s motion to terminate his alimony obligation based on his payee former wife’s cohabitation in a manner defined
Settling Your Case Comes With Great Power and Great Responsibility
Amicably settling your divorce matter is almost always better than taking your chances at a trial before a trial judge who knows almost nothing about your life. Not only can settling save you substantial time and expense as compared to continued litigation, but also it provides you with the opportunity to end the case on
This Agreement to Arbitrate Will Self-Destruct in 3…2…1…
Arbitration – essentially, a private trial in which the parties hire a fact-finder who serves in lieu of a judge – has become an increasingly common means of resolving family law disputes. Although an arbitration may be conducted with all the formalities of a trial, usually parties can agree to dispense with certain formalities, some
You Destroyed Our Marriage—So I’m Destroying Your Memories; Consequences for Destroying or Disposing of Personal Photographs and Videos Accumulated During Marriage
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and in the recently unpublished (not precedential) case of C.S. v. B. S., Judge Jones determined that 25-years’ worth of family pictures destroyed by a scorned ex-wife are also worth $5,000.00.
In C.S. v. B. S., the parties divorced after approximately 25 years of