Legal Question in Family Law in New Jersey

Re: property distribution

I am not sure whether you are asking about how long one needs to be married before you have accrued marital property or how long one needs to be married before you can get a divorce and then distribute the property. In any case, your right to equitable distribution technically accrues the second you say "I do". At that moment, its likely that you have no marital property to be divided and thus, if you got divorced ten minutes after the ceremony, there would be nothing to divide. However, if you jointly bought a house that afternoon and divorced the next day, that house is subject to equitable distribution. Bottom line - the general rule is that any property that has been acquired during the marriage is subject to equitable distribution, no matter how long the marriage was. There are exceptions. A careful analysis needs to be completed by your attorney to evaluate the situation. This advice is based purely on the little bit of information that you have given to me. There certainly may be other factors that would change my opinion. Further, no one can rely on advice from an attorney who has not been retained. Since it appears that you have not retained an attorney, you should contact an attorney (either me or someone else) to discuss your matter in more detail. Only then will you be able to rely on the advice. I will be happy to assist you. However, you need to call me at 856!

-546-8010. Good luck! Rob

Re: property distribution

Only marital property gets distributed. The shorter the marriage, the less marital property there will be to distribute.

Daniel Clement