New Jersey Family Law Blog

The process of getting divorced can feel like an emotional roller coaster, especially when young children are involved. You may naturally worry about who will end up getting custody of the children and how the children will feel about the new arrangement.

Because deciding child custody can be an emotional process, who gets custody of the children can be a challenging choice to make in many divorce cases. Here is a rundown on how child custody cases are generally handled in New Jersey.

It is often challenging to identify all the actions, decisions and feelings that contribute to the end of a marriage. While infidelity and financial arguments are frequent causes, these are not the only things that may contribute to a divorce. Addiction to video games, also known as gaming disorder, may be a cause of divorce. However, it is also possible to treat gaming disorders. Before a couple files for divorce in New Jersey, it may be helpful to determine if gaming addiction is a factor.

One of the most recent video games to cause marriage issues is "Fortnite." According to CNBC, over 200 United Kingdom couples in 2018 listed a spouse's addiction to the online game as a factor in the decision to file for divorce. Although the 200 couples who cited gaming addiction as a factor only represent a fraction of the overall divorce statistics, this number is still important in that it indicates gaming addiction may have consequences as severe as more common issues such as alcoholism and drug usage.

New Jersey is one of the most expensive U.S. states to live in. It comes as no surprise then when couples fight over the assets they have acquired together during a marriage. According to CNBC, millennials are not only marrying later, but showing a greater propensity toward maintaining separate assets. About 28% of married millennials do not have a joint bank account. This more than doubles how many Gen Xers and Baby Boomers keep their bank accounts separate after marriage.

One proposed reason for this is that millennials have witnessed difficulties with separating assets during a divorce. Even so, professionals warn that owning property separately may not protect some assets from being counted as jointly owned during a divorce. This may happen when couples live in a community property state, which does not include New Jersey. Even so, one spouse may move to one of these states, such as California or Nevada, and then file for divorce there. Those courts may then hold jurisdiction over the divorce and therefore the marriage assets.

One of the most common things individuals may hear when they start considering a divorce is a plea to try marriage counseling first. This request may come from a spouse who wishes to stay married or a well-meaning friend or family member. With all the emotions and stress that may occur near the potential end of a marriage, it may be difficult for a person or a couple to determine whether they should try counseling. A relatively new option, discernment counseling, may help couples determine whether it is best to try to fix the marriage or pursue a divorce.

Although marriage counseling may help couples work through issues and improve their communication, it does not always fix relationships. As Psychology Today points out, marriage counseling may lead to negative consequences in some situations. This is especially common when counseling begins after one person has decided he or she wants the marriage to end. At that point, marriage counseling may provoke more negative emotions and reactions, because it becomes clear that the spouses do not have an equal desire to remain married.