Special NJ Divorce Workshop: The Intelligent Guide for Divorce  

mara dooskin, nj attorney

Are you ready to divorce? What are the best first steps? How can you safeguard your kids? Your rights? Your future?

To help you find answers to these pressing questions, you are invited to attend The Intelligent Guide for Divorce, a special 2-night workshop on the New Jersey divorce process and how you can make smart decisions throughout your divorce and beyond. Taking place March 28 and April 4 (6:30 – 8:30 pm) and hosted through the Caldwell/West Caldwell Center for Continuing Education in West Caldwell, NJ, the workshop is co-led by a panel of divorce specialists, including Weinberger Divorce & Family Law attorney Mara Dooskin.

Find out more by downloading the Center for Continuing Education’s course booklet.

Register online now!

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Therapists: 7 Ways You Can Help a Divorcing Client

divorcing client

When someone goes through a divorce, they are often in crisis mode. They are angry and sad about the end of their marriage and they’re extremely worried about their kids and their own future. All of this can be a recipe for stress, anxiety and depression. And that’s where you come in! Here’s how to help ease your clients’ stress load as they navigate the divorce process.  Read more

Do You Really Need A Lawyer For Your Divorce?

choosing a divorce lawyer Deciding if you need an attorney, and choosing the one that’s right for you, is one of the most important divorce decisions you’ll make. Having the wrong representation can drive up legal fees, make a divorce unnecessarily antagonistic, or leave you vulnerable. The following guidelines will help you determine what kind of lawyer is best for you, or if you need one at all.
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Getting Emotionally Ready For Divorce

emotionally ready for divorce

The decisions you make when you go through divorce will impact you and your children the rest of your life. Preparing yourself emotionally before you begin the process will help you keep a clear head so you can make sound choices. If you didn’t have a chance to get out in front of the divorce because your spouse surprised you with the news, it’s even more important to employ strategies now to get your emotions under control.

Divorcing in 2019? Take these 5 steps to enter the process emotionally prepared.

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Divorce Checklist For Jeff Bezos & Other High Net Worth Divorces

high net worth Bezos divorce

Image copyright grinvalds, Depositphoto.com

This week, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife Mackenzie announced their plans to divorce, setting off speculation about how the couple’s estimated $138 billion net worth (2019 value) will be divided. 

Are you going through a high net worth divorce of your own? Here’s how to start prioritizing a safeguarded future for you and your children.  Read more

3 Ways To Negotiate The New Alimony Tax Change

alimony tax negotiate alimony payments

The big news in divorce as the New Year begins? Starting January 1, 2019, a significant change in how alimony payments are treated under federal tax law goes into effect. As part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (aka “Trump Tax”), spouses who pay alimony must now claim alimony payments on their federal tax returns as taxable income; spouses who receive alimony are not required to claim alimony as income and receive this money tax-free. 

The new tax change represents a complete reversal of the old federal code in which paying spouses deducted alimony from their income as a tax break, while recipient spouses were required to claim payments as taxable income. Any alimony order put in place on or before December 31, 2018, is grandfathered in under these old rules.    

If you are currently going through a divorce that involves alimony, or are pursuing temporary alimony during a separation, you will need to grapple with these new tax implications. If you are the paying spouse, you probably want to know… is there anything I can to avoid this extra tax burden? If you are the receiving spouse, your main question may be… what can I do if my spouse low balls alimony in our divorce negotiations? 

Bari Weinberger took a deeper look at alimony negotiations under the new tax law in her piece for the New Jersey Law Journal: The 2019 Alimony Tax Change Is Here — But Is It Fair? She described how changing tax rules will necessarily mean changing tactics in reaching an alimony agreement. 

Here are 3 takeaways for your own alimony negotiations.  Read more

5 Benefits of a No-Fault Divorce

no-fault divorce

In 2007, New Jersey added “irreconcilable differences” as a no-fault ground for divorce. This means that the person asking for divorce is not required to prove their spouse did anything wrong – such as traditional fault grounds of cruelty, adultery, desertion, or confinement in prison. The only “ground” for a no-fault divorce is an irreconcilable breakdown in the marriage that has lasted at least six months.

Making the decision to file for divorce is a difficult one, but filing under the grounds of irreconcilable differences can help make the divorce process less contentious in the long run. Here are the top five advantages of a no-fault divorce: Read more

Child-Centered Custody: How Does Nesting Help Kids?

Nesting is a child-centered custody arrangement that puts the burden of switching homes solely on the parents, who take turns staying in the family home with the children. The divorced couple will usually rent a separate house or apartment where one person will go during the other’s parenting time so that the children never have to move between households. This arrangement benefits kids for the following reasons: Read more

Your #1 Divorce Survival Tool: Compartmentalization

Has your divorce turned you into an emotional wreck? Are you thinking about it 24/7? Are you so distraught that you have trouble sleeping, eating, and functioning in general? Then you need to learn how to divorce compartmentalization so you can cope during the process. Read more

10 Steps To Surviving Gray Divorce

surviving gray divorce

If you’re a “gray divorcer,” you’re not alone: divorce rates for adults aged 50 and over have doubled in the past 25 years. While it may be a relief to extricate yourself from a long-term unhappy marriage, divorce at this stage brings unique challenges. Here are 10 steps to surviving gray divorce – and thriving once it’s over. Read more