SPOUSAL Alimony

Either the husband or the wife can file for divorce.  Grounds for divorce are no longer necessary to obtain a divorce in New Jersey.  Either party can allege that there has been an irretrievable breakdown in the marriage.  A divorce may be filed in New Jersey as long as the parties have been living in New York for at least one year.

 An uncontested divorce just means that all of the  issues (including equitable division of all assets, child custody, child support, and alimony) have been decided and all that needs to be done is file the appropriate paperwork to obtain a judgment of divorce.  In most cases, before filing the uncontested papers, you should also have a legally binding Marital Settlement Agreement drafted and signed.

Child support is generally determined by Child Support Guidelines and N.J.S.A. 2A:34-23 which requires the Court to consider a number of different factors:

(1) Needs of the child;

(2) Standard of living and economic circumstances of each parent;

(3) All sources of income and assets of each parent;

(4) Earning ability of each parent, including educational background, training, employment skills, work experience, custodial responsibility for children including the cost of providing child care and the length of time and cost of each parent to obtain training or experience for appropriate employment;

(5) Need and capacity of the child for education, including higher education;

(6) Age and health of the child and each parent;

(7) Income, assets and earning ability of the child;

(8) Responsibility of the parents for the court-ordered support of others;

(9) Reasonable debts and liabilities of each child and parent; and

(10) Any other factors the court may deem relevant.

There is NO legally mandated formula for calculating spousal alimony.  Generally speaking, the formula works such that the greater the difference between the parties’ income, the greater the amount of support that will be mandated.  The formula is gender neutral, so if the wife earns more than the husband, she may, in fact, be ordered to pay support to the husband.  There are fourteen (14) mandatory factors, however, which allow the judge to deviate, awarding an amount different than the formula would otherwise require.

New Jersey is an “equitable distribution” state, meaning the judge has the discretion to divide the parties’ property fairly, not necessarily equally.  Most marital property, however, is divided equally in most situations.  The main exceptions are premarital property and inherited property that has been kept separate.

You are entitled to a fair (not necessarily equal) division of the marital property; reasonable time with the children, whether as the custodial parent or non-custodial parent; child support for the custodial parent; and potentially alimony for the lower-earning spouse. The most important point, however, is that there is more than one way to decide a case, so having the right representation is crucial. 

 A prenuptial agreement can cover more or less ground, depending on your needs.  The simplest prenuptial agreements just address one issue, such as keeping a premarital business separate in the event of a divorce.  But the prenuptial can cover how the bills will get paid, whether or not separate accounts will be kept, or what to do if the parties purchase real estate or make investments.

A prenuptial agreement cannot cover child support and custody.

Child support can be enforced several different ways.  The payor's salary can be garnished to pay support as well as accumulated arrears (back-due support).  A court can enter a money judgment which can be enforced against a bank account or other assets in the payor's name.  A court can suspend the payor's driver's license or other professional license or certification.  Finally, under certain circumstances, a court can find the payor in contempt and sentence the payor to jail unless he pays a certain amount by a set date.