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
The practice of family law is difficult. I have read that divorce ranks just below the death of a parent or child in terms of grief. The cases are often emotionally charged. This sometimes causes people to take bad positions,...more
Even before the alimony statute was amended in 2014, there was a misconception that permanent alimony was actually permanent and could not be modified under any circumstances. I heard that tired argument many times despite...more
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
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
In high income cases, unlike alimony, which can be bigger numbers, child support is usually much less. Moreover, since even in high income/over guidelines cases, you have to start by looking at what the child support...more
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
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
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
One of the universal themes in divorce matters is that the court is supposed to try to maintain the status quo while the case is pending. In many cases where there is barely enough money to go around to support an intact...more
Since the 2014 amendments to the alimony statute were enacted, we have seen this clutching at pearls and gnashing of teeth about what to do in long term (over 20 years) marriages when the payor is in her/his 60s. The...more
Litigating cases involving a prenuptial agreement can be frustrating at times. When prenups are done right, there is proper disclosure, both parties have counsel or acknowledge that they had a right to counsel, there is...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
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
Social media has become a prevalent part of people’s lives. Many people post about how great their life is or about the good things that their children do (guilty as charged.) Others debate politics. Some post pictures of the...more
2/9/2024
/ Consent Order ,
Cyberbullying ,
Divorce ,
Domestic Violence ,
Facebook ,
Harassment ,
Restraining Orders ,
Sensitive Personal Information ,
Social Media ,
Spouses ,
TRO
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
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
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
Despite the Appellate Division decision in the Temple case in 2021 that seemingly made it easier to show a prima facie case of cohabitation necessary to get discovery and perhaps terminate or suspend alimony, as I blogged on...more
I still hear people call the 2014 Amendments to the alimony statute “the new statute.” Almost 9 years later, it is no longer new. That said, since that time, there is still not a lot of law interpreting it other than several...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
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
For many divorce attorneys, the busy season starts after the first of the year. For the last several years, I have posted on the phenomenon of the New Year’s Resolution Divorce. For whatever reason, this post has struck a...more
One of the more difficult scenarios to deal with during a divorce is when the higher earner who will likely have to pay alimony and child support, loses her/his job through no fault of their own. The problem is exacerbated...more