The Rise in  Judicial Imputation of Income in New Jersey Alimony and Child Support Disputes

In the past few years, unemployment rates have seemed to skyrocket while State and Federal budgets have appeared to decrease by the day. Meanwhile, friends are losing their jobs, graduates can’t find work, and the hot topic of conversation around every water cooler in the America seems to consistently revolve around one tireless topic: the economy.

It’s no surprise, then, that in courtrooms across the State of New Jersey, divorce attorneys are using the current economic downturn as an explanation for their clients’ drastic decreases in income. While many of these arguments are well received by the Court for perfectly plausible financial reasons, inexplicable professional shifts nevertheless remain highly suspect.

For example, the, “it’s the economy, your Honor,” argument may be inappropriate where the former CEO or graduate-school educated spouse suddenly takes a low-paying job making a fraction of his or her former salary and the income reduction just happens to coincide with an upcoming support hearing. While there may be valid reasons for many of these occupation shifts, if the Court finds that an individual is voluntarily under-employed, the Court has the ability to impute income to that person for purposes of calculating his or her earning capacity and, ultimately, his or her alimony and child support obligations.

While there are a number of ways to show the Court that an individual should be making more money than he or she is currently earning, the most useful ways include hiring a vocational expert or researching the Department of Labor Statistics for a given profession and asking the Judge to impute income using the mean salary for that profession.