New Jersey Divorce and Family Lawyer BlogI would like to begin this blog post by thanking all those who are currently serving in the United States military and to all Veterans that have served. Currently, there are approximately 22 million veterans of the U.S. armed forces and 1.5 million currently serving. On September 15, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling potentially affecting their military families. The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in May, 2017, in the case of Howell v. Howell (No.15-1037) that a state court may not order a veteran to indemnify a divorced spouse for the loss in the divorced spouse’s portion of the veteran’s retirement pay caused by the veteran’s waiver of retirement pay to receive service-related disability benefits. Continue reading ›
Articles Posted in Equitable Distribution
Social Security Retirement Benefits Post-Divorce
There are some points where federal law intersects with or affects the economic consequences of pending or finalized divorces. Recently one of those point of intersection was the topic 
of conversation of a prospective client. Her concern I am sure are shared by many. The question dealt with Social Security and how one computes the 10 year requirement for derivative benefits. Continue reading ›
CAN I DO THAT? (Part 3)
This is the final installment of a current series of blog posts in which I have been highlighting some of the more commonly asked questions of divorcing clients as to whether they can or cannot do certain things in regards to aspects of their financial or personal affairs. Once again, the thoughts expressed in this blog post should not be construed as being in the nature of legal advice, but merely serve as an overview of things to consider if you are a client asking these questions or a lawyer confronted with how to respond with them. Now lets get to my final two commonly asked questions in this current series. Continue reading ›
Supreme Court of New Jersey Imposes Constructive Trust to Avoid a Spouse Being Unjustly Enriched by Avoiding Equitable Distribution of Deferred Compensation
On December 12, 2016 the Supreme Court of New Jersey decided the case of Thieme-v-Aucoin-Thieme, regarding equitable distribution and/or the use of a constructive trust in a post-judgment
dispute over deferred compensation paid to one spouse after the parties’ divorce. Continue reading ›
Can I do That? (Part 2)
This is another of a series of blog posts in which I will be highlighting some of the more commonly asked questions of divorcing clients as to whether they can or can’t do certain things in regards to aspects of their financial or personal affairs. Once again, the thoughts expressed in this blog post should not be construed as being in the nature of legal advice, but merely serves as an overview of things to consider if you are a client asking these questions or a lawyer confronted with how to respond to them. Now let’s get to my next two commonly asked questions. Continue reading ›
War of the Roses: A Look at Rock Star’s Claim That He Was Never Married to His Spouse of 15 Years
I was recently perusing a periodical and came across a story about a celebrity musician who was claiming he was never married to his wife of 15 years because of a known snafu in her earlier divorce paperwork. The headline stated “Slash claims he was never married to wife of 15 years”. (http://www.metro.us/entertainment/slash-claims-he-was-never-married-to-wife-of-15-years/zsJpjE—wsgif5AIi7dW6/). For those of you who don’t know, Slash, who’s legal name Saul Hudson (which better calls to mind the fictional character Saul Goodman of “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul”), is the prolific lead guitarist of the recently reformed rock group Guns N’ Roses. Continue reading ›
The Panama Papers and the Identification of Potentially Hidden Assets in a New Jersey Divorce
The news agency CNN Money recently published an article entitled “Panama Papers: How the rich try to hide assets from their exes.” (http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/07/news/panama-papers-divorce/) T
he “Panama Papers” refer to hacked files from an international law firm based in Panama called Mossack Fonseca. Those hacked files were analyzed by the press and later published in a report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The report’s findings have already lead to the resignation of the Prime Minister of Iceland, Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson, after it was revealed that he owned an offshore company with his wife but he had not declared it when he entered Parliament. Continue reading ›
Are You Worried That Your Spouse is Hiding Assets?
V. Stiviano, the former mistress of former Los Angeles Clippers owner, Donald Sterling, is being sued by his wife of over 50 years, Rochelle Sterling. In her suit, Mrs. Sterling is seeking the return of gifts that Mr. Sterling purportedly gave to Ms. Stiviano. Among the gifts Stiviano apparently received are a $1.8 million home, a Ferrari, two Bentleys and a Range Rover. Mrs. Sterling claims that these gifts were purchased with the parties’ joint monies without her consent. Continue reading ›
THE FAMILY CASE INFORMATION STATEMENT REVISITED
For the casual fan like myself, there are periods during the year where the sports landscape is rather barren. The time we are now in between the Super Bowl and March Madness is one such period. Similarly, there are periods where the family law landscape can seem rather barren as well, during which the courts’ issuing of decisions and/or the Legislature’s passing of laws seems to reduce to a trickle. Continue reading ›
BILLIONS IN THE BALANCE: ACTIVE VS. PASSIVE
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 what basis someone would even want to challenge it, representing an amount far beyond most peoples’ wildest dreams. Continue reading ›