KELLY BERTON ROCCO

When your marriage breaks down, you face many challenges. How will custody and parenting time be determined? Will the court order child or spousal support, and if so, how much? How can you effectively plan to pay for your child’s college education? What happens if your spouse wants to move from New Jersey and take your children?

Maybe you’ve been the stay-at-home dad during the marriage. Or perhaps your work schedule has been more flexible or has more “kid-friendly” hours and you’re the one who goes to the parent teacher conferences, makes sure the homework gets done, arranges the play-dates and doctor appointments. Or maybe you and your wife have truly shared all the parenting responsibilities. But now that you are facing divorce, your ex wants physical custody and wants to relegate you to being a “weekend dad.”

When your relationship with your child’s other parent has ended, one of the most difficult issues to settle can be custody and parenting time. As a parent, you want to play a meaningful role in the life and development of your child. But you don’t want them to feel like pawns, shuttled back and forth between parents’ houses. In the emotional atmosphere of divorce, it can be difficult to strike that delicate balance. We can help.

For victims of domestic violence, life is a perpetual nightmare, a world fraught with fear, humiliation and isolation. The abuse may be physical—slaps, punches, kicks or beatings—or it may involve obsessive levels of control—denying you access to friends or family, taking your money, destroying your personal property, or subjecting you to verbal berating, both public and private.

It happens all the time. During the divorce process, you set up custody and parenting time arrangements, or you establish support obligations based on the circumstances at the time—then something changes.

The terminology governing same-sex unions in New Jersey has evolved over time, from domestic partnerships to civil unions and now marriage. But marriage is marriage—some work and some don’t. When the bonds that tie you are broken, either in a same-sex or a traditional marriage, you’ll face many legal issues, from the division of marital property to potential custody and visitation issues. We can help.