Posts by Hanan Isaacs
NJ Legi Approves Presumptive Termination of Child Support; Law Awaits Governor Christie’s Signature
When in a New Jersey child’s life should his or her right to child support payments come to an end? That is a question to which New Jersey’s lawmakers recently found an answer. The bill (S-1046/A-2721) was passed overwhelmingly in the New Jersey Senate last summer by a 31-2 vote and in the New Jersey Assembly on December 17, 2015, by a unanimous vote, 68-0, with one abstention. The bill provides for automatic termination of child support upon a child’s reaching 19 years of age, with some exceptions. It awaits only the signature of Governor Christie to become law.
Read MoreNJ “Watchdog” Whistleblower Case from 2015 Could Help Workers and the Public in the New Year
“Watchdog” Whistleblower Protections Expand Employee Rights
In July of 2015, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled unanimously on key provisions of the NJ Conscientious Employee Protection Act (CEPA), N.J.S.A. 34:19-1, et seq., New Jersey’s so-called “whistleblower” statute, which protects whistleblowing employees from the adverse economic effects of employer retaliation. The CEPA statute has been considered one of American’s strongest bulwarks against employer misconduct and retaliation against employees whose only “crimes” were their reporting of criminal, financial, environmental, and/or unethical wrongs. The High Court’s definitive interpretation puts an end to certain lower court rulings that exempted from CEPA’s coverage those employees whose jobs already required them to report malefaction in the workplace. Joel S. Lippman, M.D., vs. Ethicon, Inc., and Johnson & Johnson, Inc., 222 N.J. 362 (2015).
Read MoreADA and FMLA: Two Public Policies in Search of Employee Fairness
Keeping a job is important to all of us. Keeping a job while you are disabled or dealing with an illness can be difficult, but maintaining employment and a pay check is critical to having an income to pay your bills (including medical bills) and for many of us our health insurance is provided by…
Read MoreDeath, Divorce, and . . . Life Insurance: What Do You Need to Know?
Most people don’t want to insure their lives to the possible financial benefit of a former spouse. However, often the law requires that parties create a financial backstop to their long-term obligations, whether alimony, child support, or even property held in one party’s name for a length of time before it will be distributed.
Most often, that financial backstop will be a life insurance policy, owned by the insured, with a death benefit naming a former spouse or children for a designated sum. But that is not universally so. Some people choose to retain or create an insurance policy for the benefit of a former spouse, post-divorce, that has nothing to do with alimony, child support, or property distribution.
Assume that while a couple is married they purchase a life insurance policy on husband’s life and they name the wife the owner and beneficiary of the policy. Assume further the parties later divorce and that neither party has an alimony obligation to the other. Is there anything wrong with this picture?
“How do I protect my inherited property in a New Jersey Divorce?” Here’s how!
When things are going well in a marriage, many spouses yield to the impulse to financially share everything under the sun. Financially, this may mean pooling all assets into common bank accounts and sharing and accessing those funds randomly. While some may feel such an approach “strengthens the bond” between a husband and wife during marriage, it can actually prove disastrous if the marriage begins to crumble and marital assets need to be inventoried, valued, and equitably divided. This is especially true when it comes to assets that only one spouse inherited.
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