As an experienced New Jersey Divorce Lawyer, when someone comes to me and says, “I want to modify my divorce agreement. It’s not fair. My lawyer was stupid. I was drunk at the time. I didn’t realize,” etc., I’m going to say to them, “You have to have a change of circumstances to go back in and change your divorce decree.” The divorce decree is this piece of paper that says final judgment of divorce. Then behind it, it’ll be your contract. It will have all the breakdown of the finances, the custody, the parenting time, these things that you’ve agreed to and/or have decided by a judge. To go back to the court and say, “This is no good. I don’t agree with this,” you have to have a reason, first of which is a change of circumstances.
For example, another one is fraud. Let’s say you found out that your spouse had all these accounts that you had no idea about and you took an alimony award which was modest. Now that you have these accounts, you want a higher alimony. You want the whole divorce to be blown open. You’re going to go back in and you’re going to try to open the divorce back up. You have the wherewithal because you have the data; you have the facts. Then you’ll be able to go back and do it. The main concept to remember is once you have a judgement of divorce, the term is called the change of circumstances. Something has got to be different before you go back to court and say, “You’ve got to change this.”
Would you like to modify your divorce agreement? If so, contact the experienced New Jersey Divorce Lawyer Christopher Leon Garibian.
This educational blog was brought to you by Christopher Leon Garibian, an experienced New Jersey Divorce Lawyer.