New Jersey Divorce and Family Lawyer Blog
It is not uncommon for someone who is paying alimony to a former spouse to be concerned about or to find him or herself faced the scenario of paying alimony to a former spouse who becomes involved in a committed, romantic relationship with a paramour but is not remarried. The person paying alimony often suspects that the former spouse is choosing to not to remarry because the remarriage will result in a termination of alimony. The New Jersey Supreme Court has held that such “cohabitation” is a change in circumstance that can trigger the court revisiting the issue of alimony. Gayet v. Gayet, 92 N.J. 149, 154-55 (1983). Continue reading ›
The State of Palimony in the State of New Jersey
We often hear about palimony when celebrities are involved. One early notorious palimony case was the palimony litigation between actor Lee Marvin and his paramour, Michelle Triolla, which was in litigation for several years in California after Ms. Triolla (who adopted the surname Marvin) contended that she cohabited with Mr. Marvin for a number of years and that Mr. Marvin promised to support her for life. Continue reading ›
New Jersey Legislature Proposes Dramatic Overhaul of Alimony Laws
Currently pending in the New Jersey State Senate and the New Jersey Assembly Judiciary Committee are identical bills, which by their terms, would amend New Jersey’s alimony statute, N.J.S. 2A:34-23. Since the Divorce Reform Act of 1971, N.J.S. 2A:34-23 has been amended on seven occasions. Each time the design of the amendment was to bring the statute into conformity with case law as it had developed by the courts. The Office of James P. Yudes, P.C. has been instrumental in shaping laws on support to dependent spouses and children in the court system through the development of caw law. Continue reading ›
RENT-A-SPOUSE: WILL IT MAKE DIVORCE OBSOLETE?
As I was relaxing on the beach during a recent vacation listening with guilty pleasure to a local Top 40 radio station, Ryan Seacrest and his band of cohorts interrupted the music to discuss the pros and cons of a new model for marriage that had been posited on the Internet and picked up with some seriousness in the mainstream media – a 10 year marriage contract. Continue reading ›
The Evolving Law of Enforcement of Prenuptial Agreements in New Jersey
A prenuptial agreement (also called antenuptial agreement or premarital agreement) is a contract that parties enter into before a marriage (or a civil union) in which they make provisions for equitable distribution of assets and/or spousal support in the event of a divorce. One New Jersey Court stated, “antenuptial agreements fixing post-divorce rights and obligations [are] … valid and enforceable” and courts should “welcome and encourage such agreements at least ‘to the extent that the parties have developed comprehensive and particularized agreements responsive to their peculiar circumstances’.” D’Onofrio v. D’Onofrio, 200 N.J. Super. 361, 366 (App. Div. 1985). Continue reading ›
Part Two: Determining Jurisdiction in Custody Disputes
In my prior recent posting entitled, “Part One: The Issue of Domicile in Non-Custodial Divorce Cases – Is New Jersey Still My Home?“, I discussed how jurisdiction is determined in matrimonial cases that did not involve a custody dispute. Here, I will discuss how a New Jersey family court will determine whether New Jersey has jurisdiction to decide a custody dispute. Continue reading ›
Are Domestic Partners in New Jersey “Separate But Equal” after the U.S. Supreme Court Decision in United States v. Windsor?
The case of US v. Windsor, 570 U.S. 7, (2013), decided on the last day of the United States Supreme Court’s term on June 26, 2013, declared unconstitutional certain provisions of Bill Clinton’s landmark legislation, the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, commonly referred to as “DOMA”. Continue reading ›
Engagement Rings: Conditional Gifts and the Family Court
As a divorce attorney, I deal primarily with the ending of marital relationships some time subsequent to the marriage. However, it is not uncommon for parties that are engaged to marry one another, fully intending on getting married, to have second thoughts and decide to call it off for any number of reasons. Continue reading ›
Getting Started With a New Jersey Divorce
The process of deciding and moving towards a divorce is a vexing and stressful time for anyone. We ask our friends and families questions: some stupid, some obvious, others befuddling and perplexing about what we should do when our marriage is not going as we had hoped or planned. Continue reading ›
How the Fair Value of a Business Interest is Determined in a New Jersey Divorce for Purposes of Equitable Distribution
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. Continue reading ›