New Jersey Recent Legal Answers from Lawyers

Dear Ms. Kabi:   what your ex-boyfriend did is not just morally reprehensible, but also a serious crime.  There were many people in need of funds who did not receive them because of fraudsters.  I would encourage you to report the fraud by calling the National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline: 1-866-720-5721 Best regards,   Adrienne... Read More

This is an estate planning issue and healthcare issue since your concern has to do with the "look back" by the healthcare proviiders to see if they can come after the equity in your home for payment of his healthcare costs. To answer this type of question, you need to sit down with a lawyer experienced in these type of inquires. If you would like to schedule a consultation with one of the lawyers in our firm to discuss it, please feel free to call us or search on line for lawyers with estate planning and family law experience. ... Read More

Thank you for your question. Generally speaking, upon divorce a spouse is entitled to half of the “marital coverture” of any retirement plans. This means the income added to the plan from the date of marriage to the date of complaint. Each plan can be a little different in their rules, and pensions are tricky because they are defined benefit plans, not defined contribution plans like 401(k)s. When the tie comes to split any retirement assets, lawyers will consult or engage an actuary. During the negotiation phase of a divorce, parties are allowed to agree that one person gets a larger share of the equity in the home, or some other asset, in exchange for waiving rights to the pension.  You have options, but the best course of action is to consult with an experienced matrimonial attorney, who can advise you based on your unique situation.  ... Read More

Our practice is comprised of 3 family law attorneys, 2 who are male and 1 who is female and a female paralegal who jhas worked with me for the past 28 years. I gather that your children are living with your former spouse and are not being properly cared for / addressing their educational needs and your former spouse is not responsive to your concerns. Presuming my understanding is correct, then you can either file a complaint with DCPP for neglect or you can file an application with the court for a change in the custodial setting for the children or both. If you file a complaint with DCPP, make sure that you have detailed information to provide the representative with so that your former spouse cannot simply dismiss the claim. Do your homework first and confirm with the local school district that the children are not enrolled nor has your former spouse put them into a home school program. ... Read More

Technically, you appear to meet the requirements of automatic visa revalidation as you have a current status, an expired US visa, and will be in Canada for less than 30 days on each trip. You may be questioned on the purpose of your frequent trips if there is some thought that you may be doing something illegal, but I do not otherwise see a problem. The fact that you have a visa appointment at the consulate scheduled for October should not affect trips done before the interview. Insofar as Canadian entries are concerned, I possess no knowledge of Canadian immigration law and cannot inform you as to whether there are restrictions. Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee & Arthur Lee, Esqs.’ (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.... Read More

Thank you for your question. I’m sure this is a very stressful situation for you. To protect yourself you absolutely want this change to go through the courts. If you don’t, she could claim at any time that you took the child and are keeping him, in violation of a court order. You should consult with an experienced family law attorney who can give you advice tailored to your unique situation.  The attorney would most likely recommend drafting a proposed Consent Order delineating the new terms of your custody agreement. Once both parties sign same, it would be filed with the Court, and the Judge would sign it, making it a Court order. The opposing party may not want to go through the process of filing an application to make the change. However, if you agree to the terms in a Consent Order, nothing else needs to be filed and no court appearance is necessary. The key is to have experienced legal counsel draft the Consent Order to make sure the interests of both parties are protected.  ... Read More

Given the circumstances you may be a perfect candidate for VAWA. The violence against women's act, which also applies to men, allows a foreign national immigrant to acquire a green card without the participation of their spouse, if they are the victim of not only physical violence but emotional abuse and verbal abuse. You don't need physical abuse in order to qualify, because emotional and verbal abuse is sufficient. You should retain counsel to process your case from start to finish. Counsel in any state can assist you.... Read More

H-1B holders who are dismissed or leave their present employment are given 60 days to file further papers with USCIS to keep themselves in status. In your case, if your new employer filed for an H-1B transfer for you within 60 days of your leaving or being dismissed from the former company, you would be considered in status by the agency. Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee & Arthur Lee, Esqs.’ (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.... Read More

If you do not wish to take a risk, it would likely be better to forgo the trip to Puerto Rico or to any other location outside the continental United States. We have heard accounts of people who left the 48 states and were subject to immigration inspections when trying to come back home. We are in the time of Biden and not Trump, but caution should perhaps continue to be exercised. Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee & Arthur Lee, Esqs.’ (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.... Read More

If you are going through a divorce and your spouse is / has sold off assets of the marriage without your consent, you need to consider filing an application with the court for sanctions against him / her. As part of your application, if you beleive that he did so, to try and prevent you from sharing in it or with the plan to re-acquire it at a later date, you need to present all of your proofs now so that a judge can address it and potentially hold your spouse accountable for its value, etc in the divorce or to compel its return.... Read More

You and your former partner have ended your relationship and as part of that break-up, he has agreed to pay you the sum of xxx as settlement of claims you and he agree are owed to you. To pay you that sum of money, he is willing to sign an agreement authorizing the lawyer representing him in a pending civil lawsuit to pay over to you the sum of xxx from the net proceeds of the settlement (which amount needs to be defined as a specific dollar amount).  It is not a difficult document to draft but as a lawyer, I would want to have him and the lawyer representing him sign an acknowledgment that you have a lien on the file and that no distributions can be made to him or to any other beneficiary until the satisfaction of the obligation owed to you. This is not the type of document that you should attempt to draft yourself nor should you ask the lawyer representing him to prepare. For reasons too voluminous to go into in this response, I would also not reference any claim for emotional damages flowing from the relationship in the preamble to the agreement since same may give rise to specific concerns by the other lawyer and blow up your deal. I would keep the language simple.   ... Read More

A US citizen spouse can sponsor her foreign national spouse for a green card despite the overstay. You should work with an attorney. Some of us charge a very affordable flat fee to process and handle the case from start to finish. By filing a G 28 notice of appearance in the case, duplicate notices will go to the counsel of record so that the case can go smoothly and without complications. You can retain counsel anywhere in the United States for representation.... Read More

Thank you for your question. Only in very rare circumstances would a judge make changes to a consent order.  In fact, it is practically never the case in which a Judge would override an agreement between the parties.  In some circumstances a Judge might change agreed upon deadlines to exchange documents or perform appraisals (e.g., if the agreed timelines far exceed those allowed by the Court Rules) but a judge likely would not change financial agreements or agreements regarding restrictions on a particular party’s conduct.  That being said, if you have further questions or need to discuss this in more detail you should consider speaking with an experienced family law attorney. ... Read More

She doesn't unless she independently qualify for relief.  More information is needed.  Is she in the U.S.?  Does she fear persecution in her home country?  Is she from Ukraine? When did she arrive?  A U. S. Citizen cannot petition a friend as a matter of law. However, you can waste money and time trying to do this. A U.S. citizen can petition a fiance or spouse with enough evidence to prove that the relationship is in good faith, not just to get someone a green card. Otherwise, that is fraud and can lead to a permanent bar to lawful immigration.  A U.S. Citizen can seek labor certification from the Department of Labor for a potential employee, where they can afford to pay the prevailing wage, but any sort of employment based petition for a friend can prove extremely difficult and time consuming. I strongly recommend an appointment with a competent and experienced immigration attorney before there are any more complications.  This is general information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney client relationship.... Read More

You need to have a consultation with a divorce law specialist to review your respective asset structure and your anticipated income settings moving forward. It would be unfortunate for you to presume to know what your income setting will look like in retirement, only to find out that your understanding was wrong. ... Read More

Thank you for your question. I am sorry to hear you are going through this stressful time. In a situation like the one you describe the amount of alimony you will have to pay is based on several factors. What is the income of each party? What was the standard of living during the marriage? Is either party underemployed or deliberately unemployed? Is either party living beyond their means? What is the payor’s ability to pay? All of these aspects, and more, can have a bearing on giving you a definitive answer. To help you understand your rights and options, I strongly urge you to schedule an attorney consultation.... Read More

You are in the middle of a divorce, and I presume that you are representing yourself.  A also presume that you and your spouse are no longer living together and despite the fact that he no longer is living in the house with you, he has continued to pay for the expenses of the house but he has not given you money for your auto expenses or for your personal expenses. And, as a result of him not giving you money for those expenses, you have been taking money out of the bank account[s] on a monthly basis to pay for those expenses. And, im going to presume that since the divorce matter has started, he no longer is depositing his paycheck into those accounts and as a result, the account balance has been declining. The real question for the court is when your spouse moved out and began paying for the shelter expenses BUT refused to pay for your auto expenses and your personal expenses, what communications took place between you and him as to how you would pay for those additional costs? Did you tell him that if he didn’t pay for them, you would have no choice but to take the money from the accounts each month to pay for them or did he tell you that you needed to work and that you needed to pay for those expenses yourself?  Regardless of whether I agree or disagree with whatever your spouse told you, what was your response? If he told you to take the money from the account, then the decline in the account balance is simple and was an agreed-upon action. If he told you to get a job and pay for them yourself and your response was that you could not do so and that you planned to take the money from the account for payment purposes, then that is a different setting and the judge will then have to focus on whether you could have gotten a job to assist in the payment of expenses or not and whether your actions were reasonable in taking money from the account.  The next question that a judge will focus on is whether your spouse knew that you were invading the account for payment of your expenses or not. If the account was in joint name and each of you had access to it online (and the account login remained the same), then again, its relevant to the court’s analysis.  Lastly, if there was a significant disparity in your income settings, I am not sure I understand why you didn’t file an application with the court for the court to put in place an interim support obligation upon your spouse. Obviously, if you had done so and he did not comply and you were forced to take the money from the account, then the court could charge the decrease in the account against his share of the account, as opposed to dividing the account otherwise.   ... Read More

You NEED to schedule a consultation with a divorce law specialist - not simply a lawyer that also handles divorce matters to better understand your rights and whether the proposed consent order makes sense for you. I dont know if you are already divorced and in your divorce agreement, you waived your claim to alimony or whether you were supposed to get a larger share of the division of your husband's pension plan as part of a support agreement and without knowing all of those details, its impossible for me or any other family law specialist to offer you guidance. As a general statement, in the division of assets in a divorce ( equitable distribution), the marital poriton of retirement assets are divided and you can start off with the presumption that the marital portion will be divided equally by either a roll over into an IRA account in your name or through a qualified domestic relations order (QDRO). If being divided by QDRO, the proposed form of order will tell the plan admin how to divide the benefits and whether you are entitled to what is called the joint and survivor option as well as the preretriement survivor benefits ( most plans permit both types of options to be elected). It is impossible to say whehter the proposed QDRO presented to you has been done correctly or whether it was done wrong. You need to have a competent family law specialist look at it and look at your agreement, etc to see if the other side is playing it straight with you or not.  Since this is a benefit that may pay you money for the balance of your life, I would find the money to pay for a competent consultation to review the material. ... Read More

I strongly suggest that you make an appointment with an immigration lawyer to go over your situation and discuss your options. Your question is just too general to answer. Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee & Arthur Lee, Esqs.’ (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.... Read More

 Im not sure what "discovery" papers you sent to your ex’s lawyer or why you sent discovery material to the lawyer but if it’s a custody matter, I am going to suggest that you are in over your head, and you are not helping yourself by attempting to represent yourself. I know that you are in over your head because you said that you sent him discovery materials and the summons required a response in 30 days. There is no summons associated with the submission of discovery material, so I am going to presume that you sent the lawyer your discovery responses required by court order for the exchange of discovery material, and he has not provided you with his discovery responses.  Presuming that my understanding of the current status of your matter is correct, then an order is in place setting deadlines for the exchange of discovery requests and the dates that each side is to send their discovery responses. If the other side failed to provide materials responsive to your discovery requests, then you need to send him a letter/email confirming his non-compliance and thereafter you need to file an application with the court for sanctions for your ex's non-compliance and you need to detail what you want the court to require ( turn over responsive answers to your interrogatory requests by XXX). You and your ex also need to have an order in place for the dates for the selection of custody experts and the dates for completion of their expert reports and dates for completion of any other discovery materials needed by either side. The information above is simply the 1st step in the process of addressing a legitimate custody dispute setting. A judge does not calendar your discovery deadlines or compliance - that is your responsibility. If the other side does not comply, then you need to file the application with the court seeking sanctions for noncompliance.   ... Read More

At first blush, it looks like your ex's family loses, but it still has to pass the smell test or else you will find yourself in the middle of litigation and legal fees. If this was simply a pure gift with no strings attached and no conditions, then it seems odd that they are demanding the return of the car. If they are demanding the return of the car, the next question is why did they buy it for you, what were you supposed to do with it and was it intended for you or for their son's benefit. Something seems to be missing from this story, that needs to be fleshed out.  As an example, if they purchased a car for your use because their son could not drive and the plan was that you were to use the car to drive their son to and from his job, therapy, etc and 3 months later, you and he break up, I can understand why they are upset and in that setting, you knew that the purpose of the purchase was not purely a gift.  Conversely, you and your boyfriend have been togther for the past 10 years and because of a million acts of kindness shown to the parents over that 10 year period of time, they decide to surprise you and buy you a car with no strings attached - different story than presented above.  My suggestion is that you get a clearer understanding of why they purchased the car in the first place and why they feel that you owe them money today for it because a lawyer cannot give you a simple answer without you providing all of that information. ... Read More