A recent article on the MSNBC website entitled More Couples Seeking Kinder, Gentler Divorces reports on an interesting study which compares the costs involved in mediated, collaborative and litigated divorces. The study was prepared by the Boston Law Collaborative, a law firm in Boston where the staff includes a psychologist and a financial planner. It.. read more →

An executor may block a surviving spouse’s attempts to withdraw assets from a decedent’s estate where the couple was in the midst of a divorce at the time of his death and the transfers would result in unjust enrichment, a New Jersey appeals court recently ruled. The ruling in kay-vs-kay, A-1594-07 (App. Div. January 28,.. read more →

Recently, New Jersey’s Senate Judiciary Committee signaled bipartisan support for legislation that would require that all palimony agreements be in writing and signed to be enforceable in court. The bill, s2091, would amend N.J.S.A. 25:1-5 by adding a new paragraph stating, “A promise by one party to a non-marital personal relationship to provide support for the other.. read more →

Recently, the Senate and Assembly judiciary committees unanimously recommended passage of legislation that would eliminate alimony and inheritance rights for parents who abuse, abandon, neglect or cause the death of their children. Under current law, noneconomic fault is irrelevant to alimony awards except in egregious circumstances, and the intestate share of a decedent child is.. read more →

A new Programs Operations Manual System (POMS), used by Social Security Administration employees to administer the Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs, has recently been issued by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for trusts under the heading “SI 01120.200 Trusts – General, Including Trusts Established Prior to 1/1/00, Trusts Established.. read more →

A directive from the Administrative Office of the Courts lays out a new framework for use of incarceration in cases of parents brought into court for child support enforcement. The directive, entitled directive-15-08, comes in the wake of the state Supreme Court’s holding, in pasqua-v-council-186-nj-127-2006, that indigent parents charged with violating child support orders, who are.. read more →

You are invited to explore the legal, financial and psychological issues involved in divorce in comprehensive seminars led by an interdisciplinary team of attorneys, financial experts, child specialists and mental health professionals. There are separate seminars offered for men and women. In each seminar, team members will discuss the pros and cons of the various.. read more →

In this divorce case, the trial court denied the defendant ex-husband’s post-divorce-judgment motion in which defendant sought (1) to terminate his alimony and child-support obligations, (2) relief from his obligation to maintain life insurance for the benefit of the parties’ children, and (3) a credit for Social Security benefits received by the plaintiff ex-wife for.. read more →

New Jersey Lawyer (NJL), the official newspaper of the New Jersey Bar, recently took a look ahead to describe the practice of law in New Jersey in the future. The newspaper’s focus was on how the practice of law will change in the coming decade. To describe the future of the law in New Jersey,.. read more →

In a ruling that overturned close to 30 years of legal precedent in the area of family law as well as an appeals court decision that said there is no basis for a palimony suit unless a couple lived together, the New Jersey Supreme Court recently ruled that judges should consider the “entirety” of a.. read more →