MEETING OPTIONS DURING THE CORONAVIRUS: The Law Offices of Peter Van Aulen understands your concerns regarding the spread of the Coronavirus, and now offers different meeting options to our clients and those seeking legal representation. All meetings, including initial consultations, can be handled either through the phone, FaceTime, Zoom, or in person.

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Separation or divorce is never an easy situation, especially when children are involved. This can particularly be the case when younger children are part of the family. One of the biggest challenges that parents might face after separation or divorce is preparing their child for their first overnight parenting time session. This can be a stressful and emotional experience for both the parents and the child. However, with some planning and preparation, parents can help their child have a positive experience during the first overnight parenting time with the noncustodial parent.

Communicate with Your Child

 Before the overnight visit, talk to your child about what to expect during the visit. Explain that it is a normal part of spending time with both parents and reassure them that you will be back to see them soon. Acknowledge that your child may have some concerns or questions about the planned parenting time and encourage them to express themselves openly.

Visit the Location Beforehand

 If the overnight parenting time is taking place in a new location, try to visit beforehand so your child can become familiar with the surroundings. This will help your child feel more comfortable and confident when they arrive for the overnight visit. If it is not possible to visit the location beforehand, consider sharing pictures or videos of the place with your child. Continue Reading →

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One of the most popular movies of 2023 is Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer tells the story of Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Manhattan Project. The Manhattan Project was the research undertaken to develop the United States first atomic bomb during World War II. A question raised about the Manhattan Project at the time was how the endeavor affected the divorce rate among employees and their spouses. In this article, we discuss the impact of employment on marriage, using the Manhattan Project as an illustration.

Manhattan Project and Family Life

The project was so secretive that most of the workers didn’t even know what they were working on, and their families were kept in the dark about their work. Despite these challenging conditions and the high-stakes nature of the work, divorce rates among Manhattan Project workers were lower than the national average at the time, according to a study conducted during the early 1940s. In other words, researchers concluded that the impact of work on marriage in the case of the Manhattan Project was not as significant as anticipated or presumed.

Reasons Why Divorce Rates was Lower Among Manhattan Project Workers

The study on impact of employment on marriage found that divorce rates among Manhattan Project workers were about half the national average during the early 1940s. This was surprising, given the long hours, hazardous conditions, and isolation from family and friends that the workers experienced. However, some factors may have contributed to these lower divorce rates. For instance, the workers received good pay and benefits, which may have helped to support their families. Additionally, the close-knit community of workers on the project may have provided a support system for families. Continue Reading →

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Divorce is never easy, especially when children are involved. In the state of New Jersey, parents who are going through a divorce are required to participate in a Parent Education Program or PEP. The PEP is a requirement for all parents who are seeking a divorce in the state of New Jersey, regardless of whether they have children or not.

Assist Parents to Understand the Impact of Divorce

The purpose of the PEP is to help parents understand the wide-ranging impact of marriage dissolution on children, and to provide them with the tools they need to help their children through the process. The program aims to educate parents about the impact of divorce on the emotional and psychological well-being of their children, and how they can decrease the possibility for negative implications of divorce on their children.

PEP is Education and Not Counseling

PEP is not a counseling session, but rather an educational program. The program is designed to be informative and practical, with a focus on providing parents with the tools they need to help their children through the process of divorce. Continue Reading →

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A New Jersey divorce truly is a life-altering experience. This particularly is the case when children are involved. The process can be emotionally draining and otherwise challenging for divorcing parents and children alike. It is vital for parents to maintain a healthy relationship with your children post-divorce. One of the best ways to achieve this is through video communication. There are seven key benefits associated with video communication following a New Jersey divorce.

The seven key benefits of using video communication to keep close to kids after divorce are:

  • Staying connected
  • Better communication
  • Sharing experiences
  • Build strong relationships
  • Flexible scheduling
  • Cost effective
  • Peace of mind

We discuss each of these important benefits in turn.

Stay Connected

Using video communication, parents can stay connected with children when kids are at the other parent’s home. Video communication provides a sense of closeness and comfort, which is essential for parents and children alike. A keyway in which parents and children can maintain meaningful relationships after divorce is through regular connections between mothers, fathers, and kids.

Better Communication Continue Reading →

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Divorces are difficult and emotionally draining. Noting these realities, it is also understandable that many couples would like to try to find ways to avoid the costs associated with the traditional New Jersey divorce process. Some people attempt to pursue what oftentimes is called a do-it-yourself divorce. The stark reality is that not retaining the assistance of experienced legal counsel in a New Jersey divorce can have some significantly negative potential consequences.

There are five more commonplace dangers associated with a do-it-yourself divorce that could have long term consequences for you:

  • Making uninformed decisions
  • Inability to enforce court orders
  • Problems establishing residency requirements
  • Missing important paperwork
  • Lack of advocacy

Making Uninformed Decisions

Without proper legal advice or understanding of relevant laws, couples attempting a divorce on your own may make decisions that cost them more in the long run. Decisions regarding property division, child support, alimony payments and other vital matters should be made after careful consideration of all available options by those who understand the law and its implications. Continue Reading →

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It is almost a cliché to state that divorce is hard on children. The reason it is something of a cliché is because divorce and children is a challenging mix. There are specific ways in which parents can help their children maneuver successfully through the divorce process. There are five key strategies that parents can use as a means to support kids during the marriage dissolution process:

  • Maintain daily routines
  • Communicate with children in an age-appropriate manner
  • Appropriately reassure the kids
  • Keep children abreast of custody and parenting time issues
  • Listen to your kids

Maintain Daily Routines

A key strategy to employ to support your children during a divorce is to maintain preexisting daily routines whenever possible. The mere fact that you and your spouse are divorcing already serves to upend many elements of your family life. You provide an added level of stability to the lives of your children by maintaining some of the basic routines that you enjoyed before your New Jersey marriage dissolution started. Examples of daily routines include such simple things like:

  • Nightly dinner time
  • Attend religious services
  • Participating in afterschool activities
  • Other traditional family rituals and activities

Communicate with Children in an Age-Appropriate Manner

Regular and reliable communication between parent and child is always a must. Open, honest, regular communication becomes even more important when parents are divorcing.

When it comes to divorce and children, you need to make sure lines of communication remain open with your kids. A key element of divorce and children communication is to make sure that you speak with your kids using age-appropriate language. Depending on the age of your children, they will have different understandings of your divorce. Indeed, age and maturity level more generally dictate the manner in which your kids receive and process information. Continue Reading →

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If you are like most people heading towards or in the midst of a divorce, you have at least some type of social media presence. You may be on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or some other platform. You may also be like many individuals seeking a New Jersey divorce and not fully appreciate the potential interaction between social media and divorce.

There are a number of ways in which the opposition in a New Jersey marriage dissolution case may take advantage of our social media activities to your detriment. With this in mind, there are a number of matters you need to bear in mind when it comes to social media and divorce and opposing counsel in your case.

Your Social Media Activity as Evidence in Your Divorce Case

Be well aware that if you find yourself in the midst of a contested divorce, your spouse’s attorney is likely to consider your social media activity. The reality is that time and again people getting a divorce take major missteps to their detriment through their social media usage. In other words, when it comes to social media and divorce, opposition attorneys are able to mine evidence from social media platforms that can then be used as evidence in the marriage dissolution proceedings.

A key point to keep in mind is that you may not even realize you have posted something detrimental to your position in your divorce case when you put it up. Creative lawyers can find evidence on your social media platforms that seems on the surface to be unthreatening to your positions in your New Jersey marriage dissolution case. Continue Reading →

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The end of your marriage has the potential for a certain amount of financial confusion, even financial turmoil. Even if you feel you obtained a fair settlement or judgment in your New Jersey marriage dissolution case, you may still have some issues related to divorce finances. There are a trio of keyways in which you can handle your finances following a New Jersey divorce.

You Must Take Budgeting Seriously

A good percentage of married couples admit that they are not particularly diligent when it comes to regularly making and keeping to a budget. In some instances, the failure to budget may seem like it did not have a huge impact on your financial status while you were married.

When you divorce, you need to become far more serious about budgeting. The fact is that your financial status likely will or has changed because of the end of your marriage. And such an alteration very well may mean that you have less money coming in. With less money available, the necessity of budgeting seriously becomes highly serious and needs to be a priority in your life.

The bottom line is that you cannot follow what really is common practice among people across the country. That is taking some time to come up with a budget but not making a commitment to follow it. Continue Reading →

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For nearly everyone in New Jersey and across the United States, the use of different types of technology is ubiquitous. Many New Jersey marriage dissolution lawyers will tell you that technology of different types has contributed to more than a few couples seeking divorce. There exist a variety of ways in which technology potentially can and actually does harm marriages. Some of the more commonplace types of situations are explored in this article. Bear in mind that this is just an overview of some of the negative effects of the overuse and misuse of technology.

Rob a Married Couple of Valuable Time Spent Together

Perhaps the most frequently occurring way in which technology can have harmful effects on a marriage is robbing a couple of time together. Time and again, technology of different types can be found significantly occupying the time of one or both spouses, ultimately limiting time spent between the married couple themselves.

The typical course is for one or both spouses to gradually spend what ultimately becomes a damaging amount of time with some type of technology or device. Some describe it as putting a frog in water in which the temperature is gradually ratcheted up. The frog ends up dying in extremely hot water, not extracting itself from the situation until it is too late. Continue Reading →

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A trend that is becoming more evident in New Jersey divorce cases is that of collaborative parenting. Collaborative parenting is a set of tactics and strategies by which divorcing and divorced parents undertake their duties and exercise their rights as parents in a truly cooperative manner. This type of parenting is designed to foster a healthier environment for children during divorce proceedings and once a marriage dissolution case has concluded. There are a trio of primary collaborative parenting tactics that need to be borne in mind in order to better guarantee the prospect that this type of co-parenting effort will succeed:

  • Separate your feelings from behavior
  • Keep children out of the fray
  • Enhance communication with other parent

Separate Feelings from Behavior

Emotions can present significant challenges when it comes to parenting in the aftermath of a divorce. Human beings by their very nature are emotionally driven in many circumstances. This particularly can prove to be the case when parents are dealing with matters associated with their children following the end of a marriage. Continue Reading →

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