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 […]
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 […]
A New Jersey municipal judge has been reprimanded by the state’s Supreme Court for violation of the Code of Judicial Conduct. Judge C. William Bowkley was sanctioned for agreeing to represent a woman in a divorce, after he had previously presided as judge in a dispute the woman and her husband litigated before him. The […]
Sometimes people are forced to go back to Court more than once to try to get an Order reinforced. When a party files an application with a court seeking certain relief, whatever that relief may be, a final judgment or order is issued. When two people get divorced, the terms of that divorce are contained in a […]
Can my spouse be found to have committed domestic violence if he uses a hidden camera to spy on me in the marital home without my knowledge? Yes, a spouse can be found to have committed an act of domestic violence for recording the other spouse in the marital home without the other spouse’s knowledge. […]
A little over a year ago, Governor Chris Christie signed the New Jersey Alimony Reform Act, introducing significant changes to the spousal support laws in the state. The legislation was prospective, applying only to individuals without a final divorce judgment on the day of enactment, or anyone with a legitimate claim to modify an alimony order on […]
There are two types of temporary applications in family court: emergent and non-emergent. A non-emergent motion is an application that can be made in Family Court in which the applicant requests specific relief from the Court. Pursuant to R. 5:5-4(c), Family Court motions are deemed to be twenty-four day motions, meaning that the application must be filed at least […]
