NEW JERSEY DIVORCE SETTLEMENTS

  On an application to enforce a settlement where the opposition is founded on claims of duress and lack of mental capacity to contract, a party's emotional distress and apprehension over counsel's purported withdrawal from representation is insufficient to vitiate the agreement. Nor does that party's absence when the settlement he executed is later placed on the record render the agreement any less binding, since there is no legal requirement that there even be court approval in such a case. Both the attorney and the spouse of the party now opposing enforcement acted within the scope of their authority -- actual and apparent, respectively -- so that the agreement is enforceable against the absent wife.   Jennings, et ux. v. Reed, et ux., et al., ___N.J. Super.___ (App. Div. 2005); November 11, 2005