Recently a divorce case made the news with screaming headlines such as “Ex-wife of US Oil Baron to appeal $1 Billion Divorce Award”. Yes, that was billion with a “B” . Intrigued, I was drawn to read how someone could not only receive such an award, but more importantly, on…
Many in today’s society would view the court’s treatment of dogs and other pets as merely property to be equitably distributed in the breakup of relationship as antiquated, given the increasing role that pets are play in today’s society. A common scenario playing out in relationships across the Garden State today…
When it comes to questions regarding equitable distribution, the one that seemingly gets overlooked or underappreciated the most often is the question revolving around how to divide or distribute the marital liabilities or debts of the marriage. It is so much easier to comprehend and make distributions of the assets…
Last week, we addressed the concept of how a gift or transfer of property to one or both spouses may be treated in a divorce. But what occurs if one of the spouses transfers marital money or marital property to a person or entity outside of the marriage? How does…
It is well settled in New Jersey that when there is a question of whether a transfer of property was a gift or not, “Proof of gift requires evidence of unequivocal donative intent on the donor’s part, actual or symbolic delivery of the gift’s subject matter, and the donor’s absolute and…
According to a March, 2013 publication from the National Center for Family & Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University, authors Susan L. Brown and I-Fen Lin discussed the divorce rate for adults over the age of 50 in their article entitled “The Gray Divorce Revolution: Rising Divorce among Middle-aged and Older…
In 1971, New Jersey enacted Divorce Reform Legislation thereby placing in the forefront an “Equitable” standard for the distribution of property when people divorce, replacing the long previously held universal rule that when people divorce, property is divided according to title to the property. Although this new order was revolutionary,…
Unraveling a family’s marital finances in a divorce can be daunting task. In all contested New Jersey divorce actions where there is any issue as to custody, support, alimony or equitable distribution, both parties are required to file with the court and serve on the other party a form known…