Keywords: Divorce, family law, pandemic, education, inflation, court system, gig economy, settlement challenges
Summary: In this episode, Attorney Carl Taylor discusses the significant changes in divorce and family law since the pandemic. He highlights the shift towards less in-person court appearances, the ongoing education gaps affecting children, the financial implications of inflation on divorce settlements, and the challenges in settling cases. Taylor emphasizes the importance of understanding these trends for navigating divorce effectively.
Takeaways:
- The pandemic has led to a permanent reduction in in-person court appearances.
- Education gaps created during the pandemic are likely to persist.
- Inflation is affecting alimony and property distribution in divorces.
- The gig economy is changing how income is assessed in divorce cases.
- Settling divorce cases has become more challenging post-pandemic.
- Disagreements over children’s education will become more common in divorce disputes.
- Vaccination decisions are a new source of conflict in family law.
- The backlog in the court system is impacting divorce proceedings.
- Understanding financial dynamics is crucial for equitable distribution.
- Maintaining sanity during negotiations is essential for a positive outcome.
Sound Bites:
- “Less in-person court is here to stay.”
- “Education gaps created during the pandemic persist.”
- “Inflation impacts alimony and equitable distribution.”
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to Changes in Family Law
02:41 Impact of Education Gaps Post-Pandemic
06:00 Financial Implications of Inflation on Divorce
07:49 Challenges in Settling Divorce Cases
09:26 Conclusion and Future Outlook
TRANSCRIPT
Carl Taylor, Esq. (00:01.71)
Hello and welcome to the Carl Taylor Law, happily even after, Divorce and Family Law podcast. I’m Carl Taylor and I am an attorney in Burlington County and this is my podcast. So thank you for joining me. The topic I want to go through today is hopefully an interesting one. It’s changes that I’ve noticed.
before the pandemic and after the pandemic in the field of divorce and family law, particularly divorce. So obviously the pandemic is one of those monumental moments in time where it seems like everything’s going to change, right? And then a few years go by and for the most part, in the world of family law at least,
More things stay the same than change, ultimately, but there are ripple effects that are still there and I think are trends that will continue as we move forward. So one of the easiest to identify changes is there’s less in-person court. So yesterday I was serving as an alternate early settlement panelist and that took place online through Zoom. And in the past that would always be in person.
So that seems to be here to change. There’s sort of a movement to bring people back into the offices and bring everyone back into municipal courts and superior courts throughout the state. So I think that trend will continue, but I do not believe we’re ever going to go back to having everything in court, which is kind of how it was with the exception of certain case management conferences that were usually on the phone. So that’s one thing. And I think that’s.
self-explanatory. I also want to get into something that’s a little more interesting, which is changes in education law. As an attorney who’s represented school boards in the past, one thing that has been evident from the data at least is that there’s a gap in education that was created during
Carl Taylor, Esq. (02:11.692)
the pandemic and that really has not fully closed in most instances. So the statewide testing verifies that even though we’re back to school full time the year and a half or so that children were for the most part on computers or or homebound has created a ripple effect within their educations and it’s it’s a gap that has not been closed. It may not be closed for that generation. So
I think we’re going to see more arguments and divorces and family law that are going to focus or at least highlight the issue of education. Not just which call, pardon me for the emails. Not just the changes, know, the arguments that are standard under GAC v GAC and some of these cases about who’s going to pay for college and all that. It’s more.
What kinds of classes should our children be in? Is there a necessity for an IEP or some other sort of process for special needs that might have to be addressed? I think that there’s gonna continue to be an increased trend where education, particularly a child’s education is going to come to the forefront of…
Carl Taylor, Esq. (03:36.214)
of divorce law in terms of what parties need to negotiate and how they’re going to negotiate and handle those issues. And to that end, there’s also…
ongoing arguments over the vaccines as the COVID vaccine necessary or other vaccines necessary. Any issue where people can politely disagree is for better or worse ample grounds for argument and divorce. So you might see one spouse who one
parent rather who wants to vaccinate their children. The other takes the opposite tact and now you’re addressing that. So the vaccines are going to continue to be an issue. I think also something that was really been big in education law the last few years is the matter of school curriculums. There’s the health opt out. If one parent wants to opt in the other parent
or sorry, rather opt out and the other parent does not. Who’s the tiebreaker in that? Schools don’t wanna be put in middle of this. The courts don’t really wanna be put in the middle of this, but in terms of some of the sex education components, that’ll be part of the health curriculum that’s been a little bit divisive. I think we’re gonna see more of that tie in with education law and divorce and family law.
Another change that’s occurred since the pandemic is the inflation we’re all dealing with. So that’s really impacting everything from alimony to equitable distribution.
Carl Taylor, Esq. (05:14.702)
how much money should be imputed, how much your house is worth, right? If you put a house on the market two years ago and then there’s the divorce is pending two years later, do you need a new appraisal and all that? So there’s a lot of material differences that are going to have to.
be processed throughout a divorce when it comes to the impact of inflation, which they say is cooling, but time will tell, I suppose. And of course, with the inflation, we have the higher interest rates for everything from ELOX to personal loans, car loans, et cetera. So it’s an interesting financial environment for divorces. Something that’s…
More or less the same as we’ve got a few more judges than before, but there remains a statewide shortage of superior court judges, and that’s going to continue to impact the practice of divorce and family law throughout the state.
Carl Taylor, Esq. (06:22.67)
There’s also the issue of an increased focus on the gig economy versus W to employment. That’s something my firm is really focusing on is assisting those who are small business owners and that could be anything from an independent contractor all the way up to somebody who owns a substantial business. But there’s definitely a movement in the younger generations, which I’m in the middle, I suppose.
for now. There seems to be a movement away from W-2 employment and into more of a gig economy as they call it. And how does that impact a divorce? Well, it’s going to be taxed differently, your income. You don’t get as many tax benefits in some respects, but in others you have certain write-offs. So it’s being able to go through all the financial data and documents and…
Determine what is fair and equitable equitable equitable distribution or alimony especially when you have one person who’s w2 and another person is not
Finally, something I’ve noticed and maybe it’s more anecdotal, but it just seems like since the pandemic, it’s been harder to settle cases. And that could be a function of the court system being a little backlogged. But I tend to think it’s almost more.
We all feel kind of cheated. We’ve all lost a couple of years of our lives, right? To some extent. And that increases to some extent our frustrations. And who better to be frustrated with than your ex during a divorce, right? So, and I would note that when I’ve done civil litigation the last few years, it’s been hard to settle cases there as well. It’s definitely…
Carl Taylor, Esq. (08:16.91)
getting more difficult, in my opinion, to settle cases that it used to be. It’s taking more work. It’s taking more attempts at mediation and using different kinds of alternative dispute resolutions to work out a case. So as always, I try to pitch the, and be reasonable because you’re fighting over a pie, but all the experts and lawyers are reducing the size of that pie the more you fight. So some cases require the pit bull, of course, and they require, you know, the aggressive
response, but a lot of cases really don’t. And if you can both keep that in mind, which is the challenging thing, you can get out of your divorce with your sanity intact, your finances intact, and find your happily even after, which is my pitch for my book as always. So that sort of wraps up my quick summary of some of the changes I’m seeing in divorce and family law post pandemic.
We’re obviously almost into 2025 now, which is hard to believe. It’s almost five years since the pandemic first started. The impact, you know, at least the average New Jersey citizen.
Carl Taylor, Esq. (09:26.754)
More things stay the same than have changed, which is surprising in some ways, but there are, as I’ve just highlighted, certain areas that continue to have ripple effects from the pandemic. of course, the pandemic, we may be through with the pandemic, but the pandemic may not be through with us. It continues to sort of be out there and hopefully it continues to taper off and not be the health crisis that it was at any point. that’s kind of some of the impact on family law. So my website is www.myhc.gov.
MyNJDivorcelor.com. Again, MyNJDivorcelor.com. I’m Carl Taylor. It’s been a pleasure to go through some of these items. I hope it was helpful and I hope you have a nice day. And if you ever need any assistance, you have my website. My number is 609-359-3345. Again, 609-359-3345. Thank you.
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