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NEW JERSEY DIVORCE LAW
New Jersey divorce law has ten (10) grounds for
divorce. Nine (9) of them are "fault" grounds and only one
(the
last one) is a "no fault" ground, and they are as follows:
Will marital fault impact on my rights to a
property settlement?
Generally, the Court does not take into consideration the fault of
one party or the other when determining economic issues. However,
there are exceptions. For example, while adultery is not a factor
with regard to equitable distribution issues, it may be a factor in
determining alimony. Again, this is the exception as opposed to the
rule.
How is child custody determined?
Unless the parties can agree, custody is determined by the "best
interests of the children." In general, in New Jersey, we have now
moved toward a concept of a "parent of primary residence" (PPR) and
a "parent of alternate residence" (PAR), the object being that the
parents in general should be joint custodians of their children,
each with input into the manner in which the children are being
raised with the children having a primary and alternate residence.
However, this recent change in nomenclature does not change the fact
that one party or the other will have the children in their home
more than the other. When this is an issue, and the parties cannot
agree, a study will be undertaken of each of the households and, in
most cases, a neutral party will be appointed by the Court to
interview the parties and perhaps the children, view the households
and make recommendations to the Court.
How is Child Support calculated?
In New Jersey, child support is based on Child Support Guidelines in
New Jersey and is basically determined by taking the income of each
of the parties and also some other factors and plugging same into a
set formula that has been determined by a committee of the New
Jersey Supreme Court. Besides including the income of the parties,
the amount of time that each party spends with their children is
also a factor so that essentially, in some sense, the more time that
a parent spends with the children, the lower his or her child
support obligation will be. There are also several other factors
that go into the equation, including the requirement to pay child
care and other factors. The only way to make a definitive answer as
to how much the child support obligation will be is to have all
pertinent information available and then utilize the guidelines step
by step in order to find the ultimate amount. How is alimony calculated?
Alimony, as opposed to child support, is not as definitive and is
based on a number of factors including the actual need of the party,
the ability of the other party to pay, the duration of
the marriage, the age, physical and emotional health of the parties,
the standard of living established in the marriage, the likelihood
that each party can maintain a reasonable comparable standard of
living, as well as a number of other factors. The alimony statute in
New Jersey was recently amended so that the court is now permitted
to award not only permanent or rehabilitative alimony but also
limited duration alimony and reimbursement alimony. There are no
fixed "guidelines" as there are with regard to child support.
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