Cherry Hill Family Legal Blog

Another year has passed and a new calendar is waiting to be filled with family schedules, social obligations and the myriad other appointments and tasks that fill one's days. In the event that a divorce or separation may be pending and children are involved, tossing the old calendar may not be the best idea. An old calendar can serve as a diary of children's activities and parental involvement in New Jersey. If child custody may be an issue in a pending negotiation, the data provided by the calendar can prove very useful.

If one is a typical human being, it can be difficult to remember what one had for breakfast let alone who took a child to a practice or a doctor's appointment. The stress of dealing with a divorce or separation can also serve to cloud a person's memory. In addition to helping one remember sports and other activity schedules, the calendar can also be useful for providing other information regarding important things such as health history as well as more mundane activities such as birthday parties. All of this can also assist in developing the budget needed to support these activities.

The rate of people getting divorced, in general, is on the decline in New Jersey and around the country. However, the rate for those over 50 has increased significantly in recent years, resulting in the coining of the term "gray divorce." In addition, studies show that a person who has been divorced once is more likely to do it again than a person who never ended a marriage. An extreme example of this is that of well-known TV personality Larry King, age 83, who is ending his eighth marriage.

There are many sobering issues around the gray divorce phenomena, not the least of which are financial ones. A couple parting ways in their 20s or 30s still have their prime earning years ahead of them. For a couple nearing retirement, this is not the case. The situation can be particularly dire for a woman who spent most of her adult life caring for a home and children rather than focusing on a career.

Divorce is hard and often sad, and both of these are magnified when children are involved. Child custody can be a difficult issue to resolve as both parents typically love their child and consider the best interests of the child to be paramount. However, occasionally the feelings of animosity between the parents can spill over to the children and this can result in long term damage to child and parent relationships.

If a child custody case ends up in a New Jersey courtroom it may be argued by lawyers who are trying to win the case for their client and may have unintended consequences of further alienating parents and children. This is especially true if one parent is fighting to limit the child's contact with the other parent. All too often, the truth behind these situations comes out in the end and a child may become estranged from one or both parents. Spouses who work to keep their personal feelings out of custody arrangements will benefit in the long run.

Divorce is a difficult process and marks the end of a partnership that was begun with the belief that the partnership would last a lifetime in New Jersey. When a marriage ends after several years the issue of property division can become one that is fraught with emotion, and those emotions can make the issue that much more difficult to resolve. This can be particularly true when attempting to resolve issues regarding property division and the definition of marital property versus separate property. Real estate is frequently the largest asset held by a couple.

Marital property is typically considered to consist of debts and assets that were accrued during the marriage. Separate property usually refers to property a person acquired prior to the marriage. A recent case involved the question of real estate ownership before and during a marriage.