Time. We have so little of it. We waste so much of it on direct. We do not have to. If you do any work in divorce courts, you are familiar with the excruciatingly dull business of live testimony of needs and expenses. In every support trial, you hear lawyers helping clients read their own affidavits out-loud into the record. Hours are wasted on this unnecessary exchange: Wife’s Lawyer: And turning to page three, line two, what is your monthly water bill? Wife: I am sorry, I do not remember. Wife’s Lawyer (tapping his finger on the page and…
Let’s say your client is bitterly unhappy with the result of her equitable distribution hearing. You re-read the trial transcript and confirm to yourself what you knew all along: you have a good appeal. You advise your client accordingly and brace for the inevitable: she wants to appeal now. Right away. Yesterday, if possible. But her alimony claim is still pending. Now what? In the olden days, you were stuck. You could have yourself an immediate appeal of equitable distribution order. Or you could have yourself an alimony trial. But you could not have both, because any unresolved…
Barker v. Barker is a case that has significance far beyond family law. Joseph Barker agreed to pay for his daughter’s college bills, so long as she “diligently applied” herself in school. When Joseph received Holly’s college reports, he learned that Holly (a) had finished her Fall 2011 semester with a 1.000 GPA, (b) was on academic probation for the first three semesters of school; and (c) was enrolled in 16.5 hours but earned only 7.5 hours of credit. In the Spring 2011 semester, Holly improved her GPA for a cumulative GPA of 2.000, narrowly escaping academic probation. Not surprisingly,…