Too often, litigants (and sometimes attorneys) treat prenuptial agreements as documents that either don’t have to be followed and/or should be attacked as a matter of course to try to get the party who entitlements are...more
7/2/2025
/ Appeals ,
Contract Disputes ,
Contract Interpretation ,
Divorce ,
Estate Planning ,
Estate Tax ,
Marital Assets ,
Prenuptial Agreements ,
Spouses ,
Waivers ,
Wills
We have written a lot about termination of alimony based upon cohabitation, both before the 2014 Amendment to the alimony statute making it easier, and after the Supreme Court’s decision in the Cardali case. Typically,...more
2/24/2025
/ Alimony ,
Appellate Courts ,
Cardali v Cardali ,
Cohabitation ,
Discovery ,
Divorce ,
Family Law Courts ,
Financial Records ,
Litigation Strategies ,
Marital Assets ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Sanctions ,
SCOTUS ,
Spouses ,
Termination
In November of 2023, I did a post on this blog titled The Intersection of Family Law, Estate Law and Federal Law, regarding the reported Appellate Division case In the Matter of Michael D. Jones, Deceased. That case dealt...more
1/28/2025
/ Beneficiaries ,
Bonds ,
Divorce ,
Equitable Distribution ,
Family Law Courts ,
Marital Assets ,
New Jersey ,
NJ Supreme Court ,
Preemption ,
Probate ,
Probate Courts ,
Surviving Spouse ,
Trusts ,
Wills
Sometimes people do what is called forum shopping and file a law suit in another jurisdiction, if not another country, because they believe that the laws will be more favorable to them. Sometimes they even file someplace else...more
For many divorce attorneys, the busy season starts after the first of the year. Since practically the inception of this blog, I have posted on the phenomenon of the New Year’s Resolution Divorce. For whatever reason, this...more
12/27/2024
/ Alimony ,
Asset Management ,
Child Custody ,
Child Support ,
Divorce ,
Family Law Courts ,
Marital Assets ,
Marriage ,
Personal Property ,
Prenuptial Agreements ,
Spouses
Many clients believe that if they file for divorce, the road to resolution is litigation and a trial. While naturally, that is the final step if a settlement is not reached, divorce trials are reasonably uncommon in New...more
Wise or not, parties have a right to waive discovery from the other party and settle their matter. Sometimes, both parties have access to and/or knowledge of all of the finances. Sometimes, the rely on the parties sworn Case...more
7/16/2024
/ Appellate Courts ,
Discovery ,
Divorce ,
Evidence ,
Final Judgment ,
Liability ,
Marital Assets ,
Mediation ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Tax Returns ,
Waivers
Over the years, I have blogged several times on the Appellate Division rejecting a trial court’s use of a formula to calculate alimony as opposed to a fulsome consideration of the statutory alimony factors. I blogged about...more
Last week, I blogged about the new statute that closed the block hole that existed when a party who held most or all of the assets died during while a divorce was pending. Specifically, the new statute permits the court to...more
What happens when a party dies in the middle of divorce? Under the law, the divorce action abates and the matter is over. In many cases, that is to the benefit of the surviving spouse because, in most cases, they would...more
Yesterday, I posted the Top 10 Posts in 2022 on our NJ Family Law Blog as measured by page views. Aside from publishing the posts directly on our blog, the posts are also shared on a content aggregator, JD Supra which...more
The end of the year is the time for holiday merriment and top 10 lists. As a kid, I used to love to listen to Casey Kasem’s countdown of the top songs of the year. So I decided to do a top 10 list related to posts on this...more
12/20/2022
/ Alimony ,
Child Custody ,
Child Support Modification ,
Co-Parenting ,
Cohabitation ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Divorce ,
Equitable Distribution ,
Family Businesses ,
Hedge Funds ,
Marital Assets ,
Marital Settlement Agreements ,
Name Changes ,
Parenting Plans ,
Parenting Time ,
Transgender ,
Vaccinations
I have blogged many times about the fact that there is no formula for alimony, and moreover, whenever a trial court imposes a formula, it is always reversed by the Appellate Division. In 2020, I blogged on the last reported...more
Often, people resolve the issue of the marital home with one party buying the other out. While people often agree on the value of a home to use to calculate the buyout, sometimes, they can’t agree. In that case, people often...more
For more than twenty years, the case of Brown v. Brown, decided by the Appellate Division in 2002, essentially changed the standard of value in divorce cases from fair market value to fair value or fair market value without...more
When parties settle their cases, many if not most, expect that their agreement that they spent months or years negotiation will finally provide them with some peace. After all, if someone agrees to do something in an...more
I saw an article this morning about people who brought their digital platform to prepare prenups to the show Shark Tank. I haven’t viewed their site and have no idea whether it is good or bad. But haven’t we all heard tales...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
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
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
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
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,...more
We often deal with cases in which one or both spouses own a business. In many of those cases, a spouse received their interest in a business prior to the marriage, either from a family member, or otherwise. With regard to...more