In a move that could serve to eliminate virtually all palimony claims in NJ, the State Assembly is scheduled to vote on a proposed Bill A 3833 on January 11, 2010. The proposed bill would amend that statute of frauds and require palimony claims to be in writing to be enforceable. If this becomes law, the financially advantaged party to the relationship would be a fool to ever reduce their agreement to writing. The absence of a written document could severely disadvantage the supported party. As a member of the Family Law Executive Committee I participated in numerous discussions regarding the proposed Bill and joined in the consensus opinion of the Committee that the Bill was unduly severe and presented consequences that fair outweighed any perceived benefits to amending the Statute of Frauds. The Executive Committee took the extraordinary step of drafting an alterntive bill. The core components of this alternative legislation are (1) It shall be a rebuttable presumption that there can be no palimony cause of action without cohabitation; (2) A claimant of palimony must establish the claim by a Preponderance of the Evidence; (3) The duration of a relationship should be included among the factors for the determination of a palimony claim but it should not be a requirement that the relationship be “long term”; and (4) Available remedies should include a lump sum payment or periodic payments.
It is my opinion that the Bill being championed by Senator Scutari will be bad for women in NJ and serve to give the supporting partner a definitive upper hand. In this context, the law should have the flexibility to review the facts and balance the equities. Bill A3833 would deny the Court such an opportunity.
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