EMERSON NEW JERSEY BERGEN COUNTY DIVORCE LAWYER ATTORNEY FEES

Some New Jersey divorce Judges compel the parties to exchange pretrial written settlement offers under seal. If the case doesn't settle, the Judge then looks at these proposals after the fact, to determine which party was "unreasonable" and assesses counsel fees accordingly. The Appellate Division has just ruled this practice is improper and constitutes reversible error : "A remand is also required to correct legal error. It was not proper to consider settlement proposals in fixing counsel fees...There is no authority to award or enhance a fee because one party's settlement offer is "fairly reasonable" and the other's offer is "decidedly less so."       Dounis v. Dounis et al., New Jersey App. Div., January 25, 2008