"Did You Know That There Is No Legal Separation in New Jersey?"

When does NJ divorce law require life insurance? 

Is every woman who gets divorced in NJ entitled to life insurance from her ex-husband?

No.

NJ Divorce Law usually requires a supporting parent and a supporting former spouse to maintain an appropriate amount of life insurance to fund his alimony and child support obligations in the event of his premature death.

New clients regularly tell me that they want an "uncontested divorce."

What exactly is an uncontested divorce in NJ?

To me, the phrase means two separate things:

First of all, it means that the grounds for divorce are not being contested.

Secondly, it means that there is no disagreement as to any of the financial issues, child related issues, or any other issues, and that these issues have been resolved and are not being contested.

When you have settled all of the issues in your divorce case, the next step is to go to court for what is called an uncontested divorce hearing; the goal of which is to divorce you and your spouse and end the divorce process.  

The uncontested divorce hearing usually lasts 10 to 15 minutes.

Answer: "You don't want one."

What happens if your spouse wants to permanently move your child to a state other than New Jersey?

Our NJ statutes have made it clear for decades that either the other spouse's consent or an order of a NJ Superior Court Judge is required before such a permanant move can be allowed to occur.

Since 1988, the NJ Courts have been making it easier for custodial parents to make such a move. That may have changed dramatically last week.

On August 8, 2017 the New Jersey Supreme Court rewrote the law on what is required when one parent wants to move children from the state of New Jersey on a permanent basis without the other parent's consent.

A new client recently hired me and asked me to "serve" divorce papers on his wife that same day.

I explained to him that his request would be very difficult, and probably impossible, to do.

His request made me realize that there is confusion about what it means to serve divorce papers in New Jersey.

Let me explain.

Before divorce papers can be "served," they must first be created and then filed with the Court.

Divorce proceedings in NJ begin with your lawyer preparing your divorce complaint.  

The complaint states your NJ Grounds for Divorce. It gives the judge the reasons that you are asking for a divorce (most of the time the reasons given are "irreconciliable differences," but not always.)

Once the divorce complaint has been prepared by your lawyer, it is sent to the county courthouse to be filed (that is, received by a courthouse employee and stamped with the word "filed," and assigned a case number known as a docket number.)

By having a docket number assigned to it, there is now a place to file your papers at the county courthouse. It's kind of like having a locker at the local beach club... you know, a place to store your stuff... well, maybe not exactly the same, but you get the idea.

The divorce complaint, now bearing that all important court-assigned case number, (i.e. the docket number) is then returned to your lawyer so that he can arrange for proper "service" upon your spouse, who is now known as the defendant.

I get asked all the time, "What is joint custody in NJ? What does it really mean in practical terms to me?"

The bottom line is that in New Jersey, there are two broad types of custody.

Physical custody deals with where the child lives, and legal custody deals with who makes major decisions for the child.

As a divorce lawyer, half of my clients are people who are getting divorced.

What happens if your Monmouth County divorce case cannot be settled through conventional means?

"Why won't the other divorce attorney negotiate?"

That's what Barbara asked me.

"Steve," she said, "we've been trying to get them to respond to our settlement proposal that I asked you to draft 2 months ago and that you mailed to them 2 months ago. No response.

We've been trying to get them to attend a four way conference to begin a dialogue. No response.

You call and leave messages for his attorney to call you back. You do not get the courtesy of a return call.

Why can't you get the other attorney to negotiate?"

Barbara is a really nice lady.

She didn't deserve the treatment that her husband gave her.

She knew that he had affairs but she did not want the divorce.

Ultimately her husband left her for another woman.

When I'm representing the person who doesn't want the divorce or who doesn't care about it or just wants to be left alone, I don't get the phone calls like the one that I got from Barbara.