Alimony Reform Letters to the Editor

Alimony reform has already been discussed as a hot button issue in New Jersey.  New Jersey courts will order permanent alimony in divorces under certain circumstances such as to a dependent spouse in a long term marriage.  The loudest proponent of alimony reform in New Jersey has been Tom Leustek, a professor at Rutgers and the co-founder…

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Social Security Benefits and Divorce

An individual is entitled to collect Social Security benefits based on his or her own earnings history, or 50% of the spouse or former spouse’s benefit, if it is greater than the individual’s, or 100% if the spouse is deceased. In the event that the individual is divorced, it must have been a marriage of…

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Permanent Alimony Reform

Currently New Jersey still provides for permanent alimony under certain circumstances including long term marriage and/or a significant discrepancy in earning capacity between the parties.  According to a recent article by Elizabeth Benedict in the Huff Post, times they are a changing.  A grassroots movement in Massachusetts begun by an individual, Stephen Hitner, brought the…

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The Impact of Generosity in a Successful Marriage or Divorce

The New York Times recently reported on the role of generosity in a successful marriage.  The research came from a recent study of 2,870 men and women conducted by the University of Virginia’s National Marriage Project (“State of Our Unions” report from the National Marriage Project). According to the research cited in the article, “[w]hile…

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Top 10 Divorce Rulings

Family law varies from state to state, however, historically the US Supreme Court and other high level courts have handed down some pivotal divorce rulings. The following is the very interesting Huff Post list of top 10 divorce cases. Diemer v. Diemer, 1960, established that “refusal to have sex with one’s spouse constitutes abandonment of…

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