New Jersey Family Law

Immune Assets

In New Jersey divorce actions, most assets are subject to equitable distribution. Three statutory exceptions are inheritances, gifts and premarital items. But immunity may also extend to personal injury recoveries. Here, the trial judge erred in awarding half of the wife's personal injury settlement to the husband, especially when he had expressly waived it in the parties' prenuptial agreement, and since the settlement proceeds would ordinarily have been immune from equitable distribution. DeGange v. DeGange, New Jersey, New Jersey App. Div., March 28, 2005.

Hands Off

New Jersey divorce attorneys understand that personal injury proceeds are immune from equitable distribution. In this case, the trial judge made two mistakes. The first error was in disregarding this standard principle of law. The second was ignoring the prenuptial agreement, in which the husband had specifically waived any interest in the wife's personal injury settlement proceeds.  DeGange v. DeGange, New Jersey App. Div., March 12, 2004.