When a marriage ends, one of the more surprising questions clients ask is about gifts: Can my spouse really claim half of the jewelry they gave me? In New Jersey, the answer is often yes, and the reason comes down to how the law treats gifts between spouses.Read more
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In New Jersey, our court system is set up as a hierarchy. At the lowest level are the Municipal Courts. Above them are the Trial Courts (the Superior Court), then the Appellate Division, and at the top of the pyramid, the New Jersey Supreme Court. For example, a municipal court case can be appealed toRead more
People often ask us if there will be child support if they have equally shared custody (oftentimes called a 50/50 arrangement), and if so, why do the children spend equal time with both parents? There can be child support even in a 50/50 arrangement because while parenting time factors into child support, equal parenting timeRead more
Discovery and social media Everyone seems to live on their phones and social media these days— Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Whats Ap, YouTube, Snapchat, Messenger, LinkedIn, etc. —posting updates, stories, blogs, videos, you name it. Did you know that this came come back to bite you, though? In family actions, “[e]xcept for summary actions andRead more
I’m Not Telling and You Can’t Make Me We have all seen shows on television where the case is mid-trial, someone is sitting in the witness box being examined by an attorney pacing in front of the witness box or leaning on the jury box only for the courtroom door at the back of theRead more
Retaining counsel can be expensive, whether it is to negotiate a matter or to litigate it, and that can be a really tough pill to swallow if you are not the one who spearheaded whatever it was that led to the involvement of counsel to begin with. In this practice, it is routine to seeRead more
October’s Domestic Violence Awareness month and Breast Cancer Awareness month have much more in common than sharing the calendar’s 10th month. According to the American Cancer Society, estimates for new cases of invasive breast cancer were expected to be over 276,000 this year with another 48,000 in new cases of non-invasive breast cancer with approximatelyRead more
Halloween is a big holiday for children (and even adults). Who doesn’t love the idea of getting dressed up in a costume for a night and getting endless free candy? While kids see Halloween as a very exciting event, right up there with Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny, Halloween is often a point ofRead more
School is almost back in New Jersey, and many families are struggling with the decision to allow their children to go back to some type of in-person learning or continue remote. What happens when divorced parents cannot agree? If you have joint legal custody, who decides? Several months ago, when COVID-19 first occurred, we wereRead more
Recently, we successfully appealed a decision enforcing joint legal custody where the parties were not able to make “together” decisions without detriment to their children and on appeal, the Appellate Division reversed and remanded for sole legal custody. Our Legislature has determined “that it is in the public policy of this State to assure minorRead more