Relocation with children is always a hot button issue. That said, since the Supreme Court decided Bisping in 2017 , relocation got more difficult because it became largely a best interest analysis. Most of the time, these...more
As I have blogged here before, despite it not being the law and not really supported by the social science, many judges and even many custody experts have taken the position that 50-50 custody should be the de facto starting...more
It should come as no surprise that a child’s best interests change over time. That is one of the reasons why, under the law, that custody and parenting time Orders and Agreements are always reviewable and modifiable. However,...more
In the late 1990s when the Child Support Guidelines were drastically changed to account for overnight parenting as well as shared parenting, the terms Parent of Primary Residence (PPR) and Parent of Alternate Residence (PAR)...more
I have blogged several times before , including last week, on cases where trial courts were reversed for failing to hold plenary hearing and provide for discovery, often in FD (non-dissolution) matters. I have also discussed...more
9/3/2024
/ Child Custody ,
Co-Parenting ,
Divorce ,
Family Law Courts ,
Joint Custody ,
Mediation ,
Mental Health ,
Parenting Plans ,
Parenting Time ,
PTSD ,
Reversal
Typically, in order to modify support or custody/parenting time provisions in an agreement or judgment/order, the party seeking a modification must show a substantial and continuing change of circumstances. Given the goal of...more
Parental alienation cases are heart breaking, both because of the damage to the children and the fact that the alienated parent is often robbed of large parts of the children’s childhood – and worse. For years I have said...more
I started reading C.G. v. D.W., an unreported (non-precedential) Appellate Division case released on March 1, 2024, sucked in by the opening sentence about the court’s denial of an intra-state move. As there aren’t that many...more
Alimony is generally modifiable if a substantial and continuing change of circumstances can be shown. Typically, when we think about changes of circumstances in this regard, we generally look at financial changes of...more
Going back more than three decades, there are Appellate Division cases that offer caution about the abuse of the domestic violence statute to get a leg up in an impending or pending divorce or custody matter. At around the...more
Almost like King Solomon suggesting that a child be cut in two so that each parent can have half, more and more, I am hearing about judges and custody evaluators who default to 50-50 shared parenting. Now, that isn’t the law....more
I have written a bunch on this blog about the use of parent coordinators. In fact, one of the most read blog posts on this blog, almost 4 years after it was initially published, is titled The Futility of Parent Coordination...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
The proliferation of genetic testing, where you buy a kit and then send away saliva or scrapings from your cheek, to get your genetic history has certainly lead to many unintended consequences....more
Over the past decade plus, I have written about the use, if not misuse/abuse of parent coordinators (PCs) many times on this blog. In fact, one of my most popular posts that continues to be read more than two and a half...more
So you are in court or maybe on a conference with a judge and you make a factual statement about the other side. Maybe it is about some less than stellar conduct of the other party. Maybe it is about a violation of an Order....more
As we all experience a “new normal,” at least for the next several weeks, if not longer, parents who are divorced or separated and are sharing custody and parenting time of their children during the coronavirus pandemic must...more
For decades, when a custodial parent wanted to move out of state, it would not be unusual to hear that if the court or other party won’t let me leave New Jersey, she will just move to Cape May, or some other point far away...more
I have written many times over the years regarding parent coordination, both during and after the end of the Supreme Court pilot program. A parent coordinator is a person, sometimes a mental health professional and sometimes...more
There has been a lot of talk about the lack of preparedness for last week’s snow storm that left many people stranded in traffic for hours trying to get home. While many have argued, perhaps rightly, that the storm turned...more