New Jersey Family Law Blog

Earlier this week it was Valentine's Day: A day many associate with chocolate, roses and romance. And while for some couples this was certainly the case, it turns out Feb. 14 also falls in the same month that is often associated with a spike in divorce filings.

When looking at why February tends to see this spike, Valentine's Day may even have something to do with it. Some may already be on the fence with their marriage, and then seeing other couples' affection points out what their marriage is lacking, and pushes some to finally just file.

When parents divorce in New Jersey, one of the major issues that must be addressed is who will be financially responsible for the care and raising of the children. In many cases, this will depend on who is awarded custody of the children. Then, child-related expenses are divided according to a formula and based upon the split of child-rearing responsibilities.

Once the amount of these child support payments is determined, failing to make these court-ordered payments is not only considered against the law, but for one father, it ended up affecting his parental rights.

Claims of infidelity can be one reason that a couple may choose to divorce. For many couples the pain of such a betrayal is irreparable, and the couple may decide that divorce is the best course of action. It appears this is the case for the wife of the Yankee's general manager.

In the past, rumors circulated that the general manager was involved with another woman. At that time, he and his wife were able to work things out and remain married. However, now more allegations have surfaced that the general manager was involved in yet another relationship with a different woman.

With the widespread availability of DNA test kits, anyone in New Jersey can easily and inexpensively determine paternity. With advances in technology, also comes the need to update laws to reflect these advances.

One such area of law that is currently being developed involves child support issues concerning fathers who unknowingly raise children who are not their own. The law is not consistent, varying from state to state.

One issue that often gets overlooked during and after a divorce is insurance. In the typical scenario, one spouse's employer provides insurance benefits, and the rest of the family is included on this policy. In most cases, this is the simplest and most efficient way to deal with insurance matters in the event of a divorce. However, problems can easily arise if, for whatever reason, an ex-spouse is left off as a dependent on an insurance policy.

This is exactly what happened recently to one woman. In her case, it appears that her ex-spouse simply forgot to reinstate her on his medical insurance policy after he took a leave of absence from his job and stopped making the insurance premiums. He did add the couple's children, but for some reason not his ex-wife.

Supermodel Heidi Klum recently announced that she plans on divorcing Seal, her husband of nearly eight years. The model and the singer have three children together and face many of the same issues that many New Jersey families have when trying to figure out child custody issues during a separation.

The 48-year-old singer Seal recently gave an interview in which he discussed how he and Heidi approached the subject of his divorce with his children.

"Just explaining to them that things will be different, you know, without going into too much detail," the singer said. "But a lot of things won't change."

Certainly, if a divorcing couple in New Jersey has children on the verge of entering college, the inclusion of a college support agreement in the divorce settlement might be a smart idea. College support agreements are typically entered into in addition to child support or alimony amounts.

A typical college support agreement would detail each parent's responsibility for college expenses. Such an agreement could also:

• Limit one parent's exposure to such expenses, perhaps with a reference to the cost of the local state school
• Place restrictions on choices of colleges
• Specify what expenses are covered, such as tuition, housing, books, extracurricular activities and a monthly allowance

A destructive force that tends to lead married couples in New Jersey towards divorce is financial problems. Such problems can result from a variety of reasons. Among these reasons are significant debt, poor money management skills or simply the failure to make payments on time.

If this is the case before entering into marriage, then one spouse's poor credit rating will naturally affect the other spouse, especially once joint accounts are opened and mortgages or other such loan agreements are entered into.