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
NJ Divorce Court State of Play After 6 Months of COVID 19 Restrictions
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 learn that the Courts never actually closed – well sort of.
In March and early April, there was,
Coronavirus Creates Estate Planning Opportunities – Divorce Too?
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 “coronavirus and estate planning opportunities” and got 544 million results in .46 seconds. While I am sure that not all of the results
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
Thoughts On Moving Cases Forward In Light of the Impact of Coronavirus
Prior to the current coronavirus pandemic and resulting shelter in place orders, in many counties, there was already serious backlogs. What that means is that trial dates were hard to come by and even motions were scheduled to be heard months after they were filed. While the courts are not currently closed, they aren’t exactly
Coronavirus Stay at Home Requirements and the Enhanced Risk of Domestic Violence
There has been much news coverage about how China’s divorce filings spiked after their periods of quarantine and lock down ended including in articles and Bloomberg, the Daily Mail and many other publications. In fact, in response to our own stay at home orders/working from home/shut down of the courts in large part, in
How the Economic Downturn and Financial Impact of Coronavirus Could Be Felt in 2021 and Beyond
An all too familiar, if not overused, term to describe all thing Covid 19/Corona virus is “unprecedented.” In an attempt to avoid politics, whether any of this was foreseeable or not, there is no dispute of the absolute financial devastation that the world wide pandemic as created. The stock market has cratered, many people are
When Dividing Deferred Compensation – Say What You Mean and Mean What You Say – To Avoid Future Litigation
It is not unusual for deferred compensation (eg. stock options, restricted shares, RSU, REUs, and a whole host of others) to be addressed in marital settlement agreements, either as assets divided in equitable distribution, for purposes of computing income for support, or both. Often the language is complicated and in some agreements it is incomprehensible.
AAML & AFCC PROVIDE SEVEN GUIDELINES FOR PARENTS WHO ARE DIVORCED/SEPARATED AND SHARING CUSTODY OF CHILDREN DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
I received an email earlier this week containing guidelines for parents who are sharing custody and parenting time of their children during the Coronavirus Pandemic which was prepared by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML) and the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC). It is reproduced, in full, below. Obviously, we are all
Appellate Division Gives Guidance Regarding Life Insurance to Secure Alimony
Yesterday, I blogged on the S.W. v. G.M. case in a post entitled More from the Appellate Division on Lifestyle, Foulas and the Concept of Income Equalization. In that blog, I noted that the S.W. court also addressed the issue of life insurance to secure alimony.
It is not necessary to get into the facts