In 2021, I wrote on this blog about a case where a court delayed reunification therapy because a 12 year old child didn’t want to do it. To this day, this continues to be one of the most read posts on our blog, more than...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
The Rules of Court clearly allow a Family Part Judge to appoint their own expert on any issues, whether custody or economic issues, in order to aid the court in making a decision on an issue before the Court. The Court rule...more
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
Since the Child Support Guidelines were amended in the late 90s, the number of overnights with each parent factored in to the child support calculus for cases within the Guidelines. In general, the more overnights meant less...more
Since the US Supreme Court decided Troxel v. Granville in 2000, grandparents have had an uphill battle obtaining grandparent visitation. While the New Jersey standard was set in Moriarty v. Bradt a few years later (a case...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
Black letter law is that to change a child support Order, the person seeking a modification must show a substantial and continuing change of circumstances. But what is the standard if there is a custody agreement, even if the...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
Earlier this month, I wrote a blog called Court’s Should Not Issue FROs to Address Parenting Issues. That blogged addressed a case where the trial court entered a Final Restraining Order (FRO) to remedy custody and parenting...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
The concept that a child’s disability can delay or prevent emancipation is not a new one. In fact, it has been part of the decisional law for decades. Moreover, the parties cannot contract away the obligation to support a...more
It is not uncommon for grandparents or other family members to get custody of other family members when the children’s parents have issues preventing them from caring for their children and/or when there is DCPP involvement....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
As I noted last month, there is a new court rule for parent coordinators effective September 1, 2023. At the time, they had not yet published the Guidelines. Yesterday, Directive 16-23 was published. Attached to the notice,...more
From the earliest days of this blog in 2008, one of my frequent topics has been the use of parent coordinators. Originally, there was a Pilot Program instituted by the Supreme Court for use of parent coordinators. At the...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
Parental alienation cases are hard. They are hard for the alienated parent. They are hard on the Judge, who may not have the tools or the time to effectively deal with the problem and/or otherwise, initially dismiss the...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
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