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By: Jeralyn L. Lawrence and Charles F. Vuotto Jr. (Jeralyn L. Lawrence is the current President of the New Jersey State Bar Association) Since the worldwide pandemic began in early 2020, the New Jersey court system has worked diligently to modify its approach to the administration of justice to take into account the health crisis. read more
As we all know, family court records for the most part are open to the public pursuant to Rule1:38.[i] Although there are some limited exceptions under the rule[ii], they still do not provide full protection to the privacy and sanctity of our families, especially the children who find themselves involved in family court proceedings.[iii] This read more
By Charles F. Vuotto Jr. How many times has the following scenario played itself out: On the day scheduled for trial, you appear on time, lugging heavy and cumbersome trial binders and trial boxes ready to proceed, The clients have taken off from work and are paying someone to watch the children—first to prepare for read more
by Charles F. Vuotto, Jr. This edition of the New Jersey Family Lawyercontains an excellent article by Christopher Musulin, Esq. celebrating the 35th year that divorcing parties in the state of New Jersey have had the benefit of the Mandatory Early Settlement Program (MESP). As correctly noted by Musulin, the MESP has substantially assisted the read more
By Charles F. Vuotto, Jr., Esq. It is certainly not uncommon for judges, in the context of uncontested hearings with Marital Settlement Agreements, to conduct suaspontevoire dire of the parties concerning their understanding of and voluntariness in entering into the MSA. As we put through our uncontested divorces, we have all heard the judge state read more
By: Charles F. Vuotto, Jr., Editor-in-Chief Have you ever woken up on a day you were scheduled to put through an uncontested divorce and thought, “why is this even necessary?” If you have, you are certainly not alone. It has come to my attention that putting divorces through “on the papers” in lieu of an read more
Editor-in-Chief’s Column by Charles F. Vuotto Jr. Within this issue of the New Jersey Family Lawyer is a notice to the bar dated Nov. 3, 2014, indicating that due to the revision of the Family Division filing fees pursuant to Rule 1:43 and N.J.S.A. 2B:1-7, all certified copies require a payment of $25. As a read more
by Charles F. Vuotto Jr. The amount of statewide judicial vacancies has led to the creation of severe measures in various counties, particularly two of the state’s most populous ones—Bergen County and Essex County, with Essex County bearing the heaviest docket.1 As of Sept. 1, 2014, Bergen County will have nine vacancies.2As a result, in read more
By Charles F. Vuotto, Jr., Esq. Family law lawyers and judges now have new and improved Rules of Court and forms (found in the Appendix to the Rules) to assist litigants in resolving their disputes outside the courtroom. The genesis of this process began with the scholarly decision penned by Justice Virginia Long about six read more
by Charles F. Vuotto, Jr. I believe it is time for an automatic standard order incorporating various ‘common sense’ restraints to be entered in every divorce action at the very inception of the case. Such an initial order would be automatically generated by the court when the complaint for divorce is filed. At least 30 read more