Prior to the walk down the aisle for the happiest day of their lives – to that point – many hopeless romantics decide (or are required by their parents) to get a prenuptial agreement which set forth many of their rights and responsibilities in the event of death or divorce.  Typically, a prenuptial agreement has provisions wherein one or both parties knowingly waive rights that they would otherwise have upon death or divorce if there…

More than 11 years ago, I wrote a post on this blog entitled The Abuse and Misuse of the Domestic Violence Statute. From the statistics, we can see that this is still one of the most read items we have published, because the problem remains 11 + years later.  I concluded that post by stating: At the end of the day, the domestic violence statute is an important and necessary tool to protect victims…

We see it all of the time.  The support (alimony and child support) obligor’s income is made up of multiple components – typically salary, bonus and/or deferred compensation.  In cases where the bonus/deferred comp makes up only a small portion of the total yearly income, you usually wont see too much fighting about what the income to use for support purposes should be.  On the other hand, when the majority of the income comes from…

Very often, uncertified expert reports are attached to certifications and courts are asked to accept them though there is no ability to cross examine the expert, etc.  Sometimes, that even happens at a default or other hearing.  That is, a party tries to put the report into evidence without any testimony – direct or cross-examination of the expert.  A default hearing occurs for a few reasons.  Sometimes, the defendant never actually answers the Complaint. Other…

Many people opt for binding arbitration because it is supposedly faster and cheaper, and binding – thus final.  Some people have to arbitrate their matters that they cannot settle amongst themselves, because there are issues that they cannot try before a court given the court’s mandatory obligation to report certain matters to the proper authorities (e.g. taxing authorities). While many people seek the finality of a binding result, many others are concerned that because an…

Over the years, I have blogged about alimony formulas, “rules of thumb” and similar ways that alimony is settled.  I say settled, because in most instances, courts are not allowed to use a formula to determine alimony.  Basically, there are two types of formulas that we often see.  One takes a percentage of the differences in the parties’ income (or imputed incomes) to come to a fixed amount of alimony to be paid.  The other…

The newly unreported (does not set precedent) decision of Covone v. Curreri makes two bold moves: (1) asserting that the passage of time is not a change in circumstance warranting a modification to child support and (2) confirming that the trial court has authority to allocate expenses between parents even without proof of their financial circumstances.  When rendering this decision, affirmed by the Appellate Court, it seems that the trial court inadvertently gave some tips…