Divorce fault jersey new no

At the end of the divorce, the court or through negotiation, we will determine what portion of that attorney fee award will be attributable to you and what part will be attributable to your spouse. One of the issues that you might be faced with is alimony. Alimony in New Jersey involves several factors that need to be determined before a judge or even your attorneys can work out a proposition that works for both of you.

One of the main focuses of alimony is if there is a disparity in your income. An income disparity means one spouse might be making significantly more than the other spouse. The more significant that disparity, the more likely one spouse will pay alimony to the other spouse. In addition to that, the length of your marriage is also a big factor in determining alimony.

The longer your marriage, the more likely you will receive an alimony award and the longer that alimony award may be for. In most situations regarding the ability to work, courts are going to look at how both of you lived during your marriage. For instance, was one spouse a stay-at-home parent that took care of the children?

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If that was the case, you can reasonably expect that a judge will order the other spouse to pay alimony to the spouse that stayed home and had forgone their career in an effort to further the marriage by taking care of the children. Alimony payments are determined based upon a multitude of factors.

Morris County, NJ Adultery Lawyers Identify Grounds for Divorce

The simplest of which to discuss here is your income. Your income is by far the most important factor in determining what type of alimony award would be set in your particular case. Generally speaking, the greater the disparity of your income, that party will be paying a portion of their income to the other spouse. New Jersey recently had a change in the law where alimony was modified so that there is a more definitive method by calculating it. If you are now married less than 20 years, the law will only allow you a maximum period of alimony of one year for every year that you were married.

That generally has been interpreted to less than that; almost six months to every year that you were married. If you were married over 20 years, then you would be looking at something called open durational alimony, which generally means permanent alimony until your spouse who pays the alimony retires. The disparity or difference in your incomes is determined to be only one factor in an alimony award. Generally speaking, if you are making less and you were married a certain period of time, you might be entitled to an alimony award.

However, there is no blanket formula by which you can say you will definitely be entitled to alimony. That is determined upon the length of your marriage. That is by far the biggest factor in how long alimony will last. There has been a recent enactment of a statute in New Jersey which provides that alimony for a marriage up to 20 years cannot last longer than the marriage.

Generally speaking, courts have interpreted that to mean less than one year of alimony for every year of the marriage. If, however, your marriage lasted longer than 20 years, it would reasonably be expected that your alimony award will last until the paying spouse retires. One of the things that you can do to assure that alimony gets paid is to notify the court by way of a motion.

If it is, there are several factors that we have to consider in making a defense to that application. That will be questioned by the court. If the court finds that your spouse is willfully reducing their income in an effort to reduce paying alimony, the judges will not look kindly upon that and will likely maintain your alimony award at the current level.

One of the questions that I receive are, what factors do the courts use to determine who gets the kids? That is determined by the best interest of the child. It is one of the most difficult things that we face as divorce attorneys, and we strive to try to work things through before it gets to that point for the simple reason that in most custody battles, the only ones who lose are the kids and we want to try to avoid that as much as possible. Sometimes people ask me if their children can have an input into the decision-making process as to where they want to live.

The shorter answer is it depends. The younger children have much, much less say, if at all, in where they want to reside, as opposed to say a year-old child, who might have a certain bond or connection with one parent over another. It will require you going to court or negotiating with your former spouse on a concept of change and circumstances. I have more time.

That can be a difficult prospect. However, in New Jersey, that is governed by what is called the best interest of the children. You would have to establish that it is, in fact, in the best interest of your child or children to go with you to another jurisdiction. That could be established through employment opportunities, familial support, the abuse of a spouse or a former spouse here in New Jersey that you need to get yourself and the children away from, but generally speaking, that is something that can be done.

You might be a father who is concerned that the courts of New Jersey favor moms over dads in a divorce process. I can assure you that under New Jersey law, that is not the case. Each parent has an equal right to parent the children. Generally speaking, grandparents have rights independent of the right of their son or daughter going through a divorce.

Generally speaking, courts will grant a grandparent the right to have parenting time with the grandchildren. There is a concept in New Jersey called parenting time, which is exactly like it sounds. It is a schedule of time where you and your spouse would agree that the children are going to be parented by each one of you at any given time. A lot of times, people will consider dogs or pets as part of their family and rightly so. They have been with you, lived with you, shared your love for years at sometimes.

However, if you have the right attorney, we can negotiate with your spouse, who likely feels the same love for your pet that you do, what would be in the best interest of that pet and who should maintain that pet going forward, or in some cases, even have a parenting plan schedule for your pet. Shared custody is a concept where both you and your spouse will effectively share parenting responsibilities for both of your children.

Knowledgeable Guidance for a Difficult Journey

Throughout any divorce process, there is always going to be some degree of upheaval and some degree of uncertainty. Your attorneys will work with you to try to minimize that as much as possible for the children. You might have children and might be concerned about a concept called sole legal custody. In New Jersey, there are two types of custody: physical and legal.

Physical custody means where the kids are at any given point in time; where they put their heads at night and where they wake up in the morning. Legal custody, however, is who has the right to make decisions with respect to the children. Most of those decisions are going to be major decisions regarding medical procedures, regarding how the upbringing of the children is going to impact them where they go to school, and that decision is more of a legal, as opposed to a custodial decision.

Generally speaking in New Jersey, barring abuse and neglect, most parents will share legal custody. That is one of the most damaging things a spouse can do, is to withhold your child or children from you. The courts will consider various factors in child support and how to calculate it.

Two of the most important ones being the incomes of both parties, and the parenting time that both parties have. Similarly, the more time you have overnight parenting time with your child, the more you should expect to receive for the benefit of your child because the higher your expenses will be. They cannot willfully be underemployed or willfully quit their job and expect to have them benefit from that rather unprincipled decision. The courts have the ability to and often do modify child support awards based upon your present income.

In New Jersey, there are a couple different methods by which you can collect money that that parent has not paid for the benefit of their children. You can have probation administer your child support case.

If the obligating parent does not pay, probation has the ability to go and actually have this person arrested, and brought before a judge, and get money out of them for support of your child. Also, you have the ability to go to court yourself. In addition, the courts will look at the child themselves.

If you have a child that excels in sports, for instance, but might not be the scholarship recipient based upon their grades, courts will look at what type of institution that child is seeking to apply to. Are they looking to apply to a more sports-oriented school to obtain their goals, or are they looking more to an academic-type institution, which might not be suitable for them? You have the absolute right to take that spouse or that ex back to court.