Richard S. Diamond Family Law Blog

In a thorough and detailed opinion, the New Jersey appellate division in the June 18, 2009 published opinion in Crespo v. Crespo, overturned a Hudson county trial court decision that the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act, N.J.S.A. 2C:25-17 to  -35 (“Act”) was unconstitutional, a decision that should come as no surprise in the light of previous case law upholding it. See Roe v. Roe,  253 N.J. Super. 418,  427 (App. Div. 1992).
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In the June 16, 2009 published appellate opinion in Hadfield v. The Prudential Insurance Company, the ex-wife argued that she was entitled to proceeds from a life insurance policy for her divorced ex-husband because she had been named as the beneficiary prior to divorce, the beneficiary designation had not been changed post-divorce and the parties had agreed they would each remain as beneficiaries on each other’s life insurance until they remarried.

The parents of Ryan... Read More

Approximately 200 nations have signed on to an international  treaty known as the Hague Convention on child abduction, which treaty requires the country where a child is taken to ( regardless of whether the child is taken by a biological parent or not) to return the child to his/ her country of origin.

A central purpose of the treaty is to prevent parents from abducting their children from one country and taking their children to another country hoping that the new country... Read More

New Jersey has an anti-removal statute N.J.S.A. 9:2-2 which provides that a child who was born in this State or who has resided here  may not relocate to another state absent the consent of both parents or an order from the court finding sufficient cause to permit such a move, unless the child is aged fourteen or more; when they can give their own consent to the move for the purposes of compliance with N.J.S.A. 9:2-2. See Kavrakis v. Kavrakis, 196 N.J.... Read More

The April 23, 2009 published appellate decision in Chandok v. Chandok addressed a setting where the trial Judge should have disqualified himself from hearing a divorce case. 

In Chandok, the appellate decision reversed the trial court judge's decision not to remove himself from the matter, vacated the judgment entered by that judge as a result of the trial and remanded the matter... Read More

Based on a recent NJ Court decision, who gets the family pet in a break up setting, just got more complicated.

Courts in New Jersey traditionally viewed pets like chairs and personalty and were reluctant, if not down right opposed, to making pet ownership determinations in a break up setting. In fact, many if not most judges considered court action concerning family pets to be frivolous and a waste of precious judicial resources.  The reason for this is that New Jersey... Read More

For reasons unknown to this writer, while the economy continues to falter and unemployment continues to skyrocket, the New Jersey senate has focused its energies on rewriting the laws of this state on the subject of Palimony, requiring all agreements between unmarried cohabitants to be in writing to be enforceable.

As such, regardless of whether you are gay or straight, if you are  living in a family-type relationship with another person and relying on promises of support and... Read More

In today’s difficult economic environment, with layoffs, salary reductions and unemployment a harsh reality, many people are finding it difficult or impossible to meet their alimony or child support obligations.  Worse, there is a tremendous fear as to what a court will do if someone can no longer afford to pay the court ordered or agreed upon level of support because of a job loss or salary reduction.

Historically, the simply remedy was to file an application to the court... Read More

Depends. If you are still married, emancipation occurs when you and your spouse decide that it is time for your child to stand on his / her own. But, if you are divorced, even if a settlement agreement says that emancipation occurs at 18 or upon graduation from high school, a judge still has the right to override the terms of that agreement and continue an obligation for support upon parents for that child. 

In New Jersey, the legal standard for emancipation is "[w]hen a... Read More

I have worked with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children on child abduction cases and am outraged by the actions of the Brazilian court in refusing to honor its obligations under the Hague Convention on rules governing Child Abductions. Essentially, Brazil has signed off on the Convention to ensure that its children are returned to its borders and at the same time, is refusing to honor its obligation to ensure the "prompt" return of children abducted elsewhere and... Read More