Legal Question in Family Law in New Jersey

Re: child support

With the income you state, you would be foolish to even begin to discuss this with your wife, before you talk to a highly qualified divorce attorney. You may simply be trying to get a rough number to see whether your attorney is advising you accurately.

Here is the short answer: at $200,0000 income, you are off of the charts that Judges must use to set child support. You will pay based upon your income, her income (zero), with small adjustments for health insurance, overnight visitation, and any other children you may have. You will likely pay at least the max on the NJ Child Support Guidelines, $650 per week, and probably a lot more.

Alimony: impossible to predict, will depend in large part on asset split between you.

I suggest you go to an attorney now. Tomorrow.

Please contact me if you wish to retain me. All statements made herein are incomplete and general in nature, and can not be relied upon by you. You must consult directly with an attorney for advice on your specific case. Facts not disclosed by you may completely change the statements made herein.

Re: child support

I think that your questions require an in-office consultation and that you should exercise great care in making a deal with you wife because you may have to abide by that deal for a very long time.

Alimony is permanent after a ten year marriage unless the dependent spouse has earning capacity that would make this arrangement unfair. Normally the incomes of the two people are added together then divided in half to estimate the alimony. If your wife is never going to work you have quite a burden. On the other hand if she has the capacity to obtain gainful employment that capacity is attributed to her whether she gets a joy or not. Your child support obligation is based upon income guidelines established by the Court.

On the other hand you are entitled to half of all marital assets, including the marital residence. You could offset a substantial part of your alimony obligation with your half of the equity in your house, but this in turn might be partly offset by half the value of your pension and/or 401k plan and investment.

It is not wise to begin the discussion of alimony talking about permanent alimony because your wife may not be thinking in this way. Fina an attorney to represent you and take great care that in being "fair" to your wife that you are not unfair to yourself.

You should click on my website address, below, in order to obtain my telephone number so that you can call me for further discussion of your situation.

Gary Moore, Esquire

Hackensack, New Jersey

www.garymooreattorneyatlaw.com

Re: child support

At a minimum, $650-700/wk for child support based on the C.S. guideline tables.

Alimony is anyones guess. Sounds like your wife has little skills, little chance to find gainful employment and she enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle during the marriage.

All of those are factors that will go into an alimony award.

Is there a current Pendente Lite order for support? That would give you a good idea of what you can expect to pay.

I think you are on the right track by deciding to work this out now rather than later.