Indigent parents have a constitutional right to a lawyer when the Division of Child Protection & Permanency (formerly DYFS) seeks to remove children from their care. Recently, the New Jersey Supreme Court expanded this right to include indigent parents sued by foster families or private adoption agencies who are seeking to terminate their parental rights. The […]
Women going through a divorce can face a great deal of self-doubt, confusion, and fear. If you have been married for many years, you may not be able to conceive of what a new life might look like. If you are financially dependent upon your spouse, you also may have serious concerns about striking out on your […]
For 16 years, families across the United States have celebrated National Adoption Day every November 19th. Since its inception, the project has help to achieve over 58,000 adoptions nationwide. The concept was a pet project of Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy’s restaurant. Both Dave Thomas, and his daughter Wendy, after whom the restaurant chain […]
Theresa Lyons, Managing Partner at Lyons & Associates P.C., has been named one of the Top 25 Leading Women Entrepreneurs in New Jersey for 2016. This honor is bestowed annually upon 25 women who have demonstrated exceptional business acumen and achieved tremendous accomplishments in their respective fields. Selections are made by an advisory board that […]
Recently, a Wisconsin judge pulled a married same-sex couple from Virginia into an eleven-month long legal battle over their parental rights. A woman from Wisconsin had agreed to be the couple’s surrogate and delivered their son last year. Judge Jim Troupis was assigned to their case in Wisconsin. Troupis viewed surrogacy as a form of human trafficking, […]
If my husband married another person before we were divorced, is he guilty of committing bigamy? Circumstances arise in multiple cases where one spouse has remarried while still married to his current spouse. In New Jersey, N.J.S.A. 2C:24-1 provides that a married person is guilty of bigamy if he contracts or purports to contract another marriage, unless at the […]
I want to obtain custody of my pet and my spouse does too. How will the Court handle this? As a pet owner myself, I understand the importance that pets play in peoples’ lives and that pets are often treated as members of the family, notwithstanding their often crude behavior. Historically, pets have been treated as chattel, […]
You may think, “My house is under water. I guess it will have to go into foreclosure.” That couldn’t be further from the truth! In many divorces, a short sale is the answer. A short sale takes place when the amount owed on the mortgages is more than the sale price. In situations like this, many banks […]
A common and appropriate concern that matrimonial attorneys hear from their payor clients that comes up in a post-judgment situation is how to ensure that the child support that is paid to the custodial parent is actually being used for the child’s benefit. This concern becomes even more salient when the child is at the […]
Revenge porn is the practice of posting sexually explicit photographs or videos of an ex-lover or ex-spouse without their permission, with the intent of humiliating them or hurting their professional career. While this practice seems to be growing at an alarming rate due to the widespread popularity of social media, it can cause irreparable damage in […]
