Good afternoon, Family Law Friends! I could use your wisdom and expertise.
Last week I represented a plaintiff in Essex County at a default divorce hearing. The defendant never filed an answer. We served the defendant with the CIS and proposed Notice of Judgment of Equitable Distribution. We never received any discovery from the defendant. The parties have virtually no assets together save for defendant's pension and books the defendant wrote during this 5-year marriage. However, plaintiff did not know the titles of the books and the only information she had is that he may have self-published via Amazon. I researched online and found one book written by someone with defendant's name. However, there wasn't much by way of author biography and the defendant has a common name. Therefore, plaintiff could not confirm if that was one of the books defendant wrote.
At the hearing, the plaintiff testified to the facts she knew and the defendant who appeared via phone confirmed he had written books (didn't say how many but didn't dispute that he had written at least two. He confirmed he self-published via Amazon and that to date he hasn't sold any). The judge told me I could ask defendant questions but warned me that I was "on a tight leash" and to "not treat this as discovery." He then prevented me from asking questions about the titles of the books, dates published, etc. The judge did grant equitable distribution of defendant's pension plan but not of the books. He stated on the record that we failed to meet our burden since we didn't provide him with any concrete information like a printout showing the title, publisher, date published for the books. But, we also did not provide any written documents regarding the defendant's pension yet he granted equitable distribution of that and instructed plaintiff as to how to address distribution in a QDRO. We will likely receive the written judgment later this week.
One experienced practitioner suggested to me that I could try to reach out to the defendant and ask if they'd agree to entering into a consent order for equitable distribution of the sale of the net proceeds from book sales. This would save all parties the costs of an appeal. In case the defendant continues his pattern of non-responsiveness or declines signing a consent order, is it worth appealing (1) the judge's denial of me asking relevant questions regarding the books and (2) the denial of equitable distribution of the books?
Any suggestions/advice you can offer is greatly welcome. Feel free to call me if that's easier. My direct dial is below. In advance, lots of thanks!
Adelina
Adelina Herrarte
Senior Staff Attorney
she/her/hers
Volunteer Lawyers for Justice
PO Box 32040 | Newark, NJ 07102
T (973) 233-5637| F (973) 645-1954
[email protected] www.vljnj.org
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