A 20/20 Look at 50-50 Custody
Date: Oct 22, 2026 12:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Location: Online
Member Price: $169.00
Non-Member Price: $209.00
Section Price: $0.00
Areas of Law: Family
Earn up to 3.3 credits! (More Information)
Featured Speaker
Moderator
- Hon. Lisa F. Chrystal, P.J.F.P. (Ret.)
- Brach Eichler LLC
Presenters
- Hon. Bruce D. Buechler, J.S.C., Essex
- Essex County
- Alyssa Bartholomew, Esq.
- Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi PC, Roseland
- LaDonna M. Cousins, Esq.
- Williams Law Group, LLC, Short Hills
- Eileen A. Kohutis, Ph.D.
- Forensic and Clinical Psychologist, Livingston
- Matheu D. Nunn, Esq.
- Certified By the Supreme Court of New Jersey As a Matrimonial Law Attorney
Einhorn, Barbarito, Frost, Botwinick, Nunn & Musmanno, P.C. - Michelle T. Thompson, Esq.
- Lawrence Law, Princeton
Legal and mental health experts have long viewed50-50 physical custody as a way to keep both parents involved in their children’s lives and avoid litigation. However, after living through decades of that arrangement many now left to question whether 50-50 physical custody is the panacea we thought it would be. Today with more states considering laws to promote equal physical custody, what does hindsight teach us about the future?
This compelling program will take a 20/20 look at 50-50 arrangements and examine their pros and cons. Our panel of leading New Jersey family lawyers and a psychologist will share strategies and practical advice about how to best negotiate parenting arrangements and plans, all with an eye to anticipating likely problems and resolving them proactively. The panelists will discuss seminal cases such as Kinsella v Kinsella, 287 N.J. Super. 305, which primarily deals with custody, but also addresses the issue of courts having the discretion to order co-parenting counseling as a mandatory requirement of joint custody.
Topics include:
- Is sole custody ever in the best interest of a child?
- What a parent must show to obtain sole custody
- Issues with shared legal custody and how to address routine and major life decisions in parenting plans
- What types of physical custody arrangements are in the best interest of the child?
- Issues with equal physical custody - Is it beneficial to children? Can it be detrimental?
- The latest amendments to NJSA 9:2-4 and its anticipated effect on child custody proceedings
- What do the experts say?
- Public policy consideration
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