Legal guidance in New Jersey by John Sandy Ferner right now? After the parties are comfortable with the mediator and can express their concerns, and they can express proposals knowing that everything you do in mediation is confidential and can’t be used in a court, I find this is the best alternative. Sometimes in cases that are in a divorce, the court will refer the parties to what we call in-house custody, parenting time mediation, and they do a great job, and sometimes that settles the custody and parenting time issues, but sometimes they need more than what the court can offer, and sometimes there’s just no court case. The parties aren’t in a divorce, or it’s a post-divorce issue, so these types of cases are a perfect fit for mediation and a perfect fit to avoid the emotional and financial toll of litigation. See extra details about Sandy Ferner.
Legal tip today with John Sandy Ferner : A lot of my clients come to us and ask the question, “In my New Jersey divorce case, how can I keep my expenses down?” It’s a great question because here we pride ourselves on being mindful of people’s money and mindful of our legal expenses. There’s no need, in a lot of cases, for people to spend exorbitant amounts of money on things that they could do themselves – little things like making ample copies, making sometimes three and even four sets of copies of discovery.
Anytime somebody loses their life due to the careless, negligent, or intentional actions of another person or entity, the family member or personal representative of the deceased may be able to file a wrongful death lawsuit in order to recover compensation. These cases can become immensely complicated, but family members deserve to have some sort of compensation and closure for their losses. Wrongful death claims arise in various ways, including vehicle accidents, workplace accidents, defective product incidents, and more.
A settlement is a voluntary agreement reached by the parties in the lawsuit. A settlement resolving a debt lawsuit usually addresses how much the Defendant has agreed to pay and what actions the Plaintiff will (or won’t) take as long as the payment(s) are timely made. For a long-term payment plan, the Plaintiff may require the Defendant to sign an ‘Agreed Judgment.’ An Agreed Judgment is basically the Defendant admitting that the money is owed and the Plaintiff promising not to collect on the judgment as long as the Defendant makes the agreed upon payments. Settlements can vary from very simple to very complicated. Legal counsel should be sought before signing a settlement agreement.
Why You Need a Lawyer? In New Jersey, child custody matters are complex. Complex cases require an attorney. It is virtually impossible for a person to represent themselves through the court system in a true custody case. If we’re talking about just negotiating a couple of days of parenting time here or there, people represent themselves all the time; but if it’s a true custody case, and there’s the welfare of the child at stake, there are going to be experts involved. They could be court-appointed experts or they could be experts who you individually retain. Our courts are guided by a statute that has a lot of factors, which deal with custody and parenting time, and those factors are very case-specific and they need to be addressed – the provable facts, along with our experts to those factors – and then presented to a court. If you’re going to have a true custody case, you definitely want to be represented by an experienced attorney who has tried and dealt with custody cases.
State v. Abayuba Rivas A-15-21(086051): Justice Albin concurred that the defendant’s confession to law enforcement officers be thrown out because of his ambiguous request counsel. As mentioned in the previous case, questioning must cease once the suspect requests for counsel unless they initiate conversation with law enforcement officers. In 2014, Rivas reported his wife was missing and when he was answering questions to help police for the missing person’s investigation, he told them that he had stayed home when his wife went missing. Afterwards, he was shown surveillance footage that he was driving a truck registered to his name during that time. Rivas mentioned that he had left his 2 year old daughter alone at home while he drove around looking for his wife. He was subsequently arrested and incarcerated for child endangerment and providing false information to the police. Once he was placed in jail, he attempted suicide. When Rivas was brought to the hospital, he was questioned by detectives after his Miranda rights were read. He told detectives that under coercion, he had to drive his vehicle while they abducted his wife and they threatened him with death if he called police. Questioning went into the next day. Rivas told detectives, “Ah a lawyer, I need time to find a lawyer. I need to see how much they charge.” and “Do you think that I need a lawyer? Because how you say innocent?” The detectives told him that he had to decide that. Afterwards he told detectives “In the beginning, I say I don’t want a lawyer, and then I want a lawyer so.” and interrogation should have stopped but detectives continued to question him for 5 more hours. Here, the defendant’s 5th amendment right to counsel was violated because his statements should have been sufficient enough to invoke his right to counsel. During this interrogation, he admitted to killing his wife. The next day, the same confession was recorded but with added details. Since questioning never ceased after his ambiguous request for counsel, the court held that both his confessions are inadmissible.