How Mental Illness and Disability Can Impact Family Law Case

Presenters

Hon. Margaret Goodzeit

Dr. Mitch Abrams

Abrams Psychological Services, Fords

is a licensed psychologist and founder of Abrams Psychological Services with offices in Tinton Falls and Fords, New Jersey. He has been serving the greater tri-state area with forensic psychology services since 2000. He is also the Chief Psychologist for Rutgers University Correctional HealthCare, where he oversees mental health services inside the state prisons in the New Jersey Department of Corrections.
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nA sports psychologist and the nation’s expert in anger and violence in sports, Dr. Abrams has also been a pioneer in sexual assault and dating violence prevention, with a specific focus on athlete populations, and has developed the Abrams Model of Sexual Assault Prevention. He is Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Rutgers/Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and has held adjunct faculty positions at Brooklyn College, Long Island University/C.W. Post and Fairleigh Dickinson University. Dr. Abrams has presented on topics including the value of psychological testing in family law matters, trauma in the context of children, reunification therapy, violence risk assessment and implicit biases in family law. The author of Anger Management in Sport: Understanding and Controlling Violence in Athletes, he coordinates the forensic track of Rutgers-UBHC’s predoctoral internship program and trains forensic psychologists.
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nDr. Abrams received his B.S. from Brooklyn College and his M.S. in Applied Psychology and his Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology from C.W. Post/Long Island University.
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Cheryl E. Connors, Esq.

Tonneman & Connors, LLC, Eatontown

is a Partner in Tonneman & Connors, LLC with offices in Eatontown and East Brunswick, New Jersey. She concentrates her practice in family law, with an emphasis in issues of divorce, child custody, visitation, child support, equitable distribution, palimony, adoption, paternity, domestic violence, prenuptial agreements and collaborative divorce. In 2016 she appeared before the New Jersey Supreme Court on behalf of the New Jersey State Bar Association in the matter of In re Adoption of a Child by J.E.V.
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nAdmitted to practice in New Jersey and before the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, Ms. Connors is Vice Chair of the Executive Committee of the Family Law Section of the New Jersey State Bar Association, a member of the NJSBA’s Solo and Small-Firm Section, has served on the New Jersey Supreme Court Family Practice Committee for the 2017-2019 and 2019-2021 terms, and is serving on the Committee for the 2021-2023 term. She is also a member of the Middlesex County and Monmouth Bar Associations, and the Collaborative Divorce Professionals of New Jersey. She serves as a Matrimonial Early Settlement panelist in Middlesex County and as an Intensive Settlement Panelist in Monmouth County.
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nAn Associate Managing Editor of the New Jersey Family Lawyer, Ms. Connors has authored and co-authored numerous articles which have appeared in the New Jersey Family Lawyer and has been published in Divorce Magazine’s Frequently Asked Questions feature. She was the 2013 recipient of the Martin S. Goldin Family Law Award from the Middlesex County Bar Association and frequently lectures on family law topics.
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nMs. Connors received her B.A., with distinction, from Cornell University and her J.D., magna cum laude, from Seton Hall University School of Law, where she was a senior member of the Seton Hall Law Review and received the Raymond del Tufo, Jr. Award. She served as a judicial clerk to the Honorable Barry T. Albin, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey.
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Beth C. Manes, Esq.

Manes & Weinberg, LLC, Mountainside

is a Partner in Manes & Weinberg, Special Needs Lawyers, LLC in Mountainside, New Jersey. She concentrates her practice in special education law, special needs planning, guardianships, trust advocacy and estate planning.
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nAdmitted to practice in New Jersey and before the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, Ms. Manes is a member and Past Chair of the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Solo-Small Firm Section and a member of the NJSBA’s Elder and Disability Law Section and Education Law Committee, as well as the New Jersey Special Education Practitioners. She is a member of the Union County Bar Association, serves as Co-Chair of the Association’s Trusts, Estates and Elder Law Committee and is a member of the Union County Probate Early Settlement Panel. A member of the Board of Directors of Don’t Hide It, Flaunt It!, Ms. Manes is Past President of the Planned Lifetime Assistance Network of New Jersey, Inc., which provides lifetime advocacy for people with special needs. She is a member of the Special Needs Alliance, a national organization of attorneys who work with families with special needs.
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nMs. Manes served as a hearing panel chair for the State of Delaware Department of Education, overseeing special education hearings. She has lectured on special needs children in divorce topics for CLE courses and for community groups, and has raised puppies for The Seeing Eye since 2012. She is the recipient of several honors.
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nMs. Manes received her B.A., cum laude, from Brandeis University, where she was the recipient of several awards and inducted into Pi Sigma Alpha. She received her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, where she was a member of the Environmental Moot Court Team, won the Best Oralist award and was the Coordinating Editor of Production of the Michigan Journal of Gender and Law.
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Albertina Webb, Esq.

Sarno DaCosta Daniello & Maceri, Lanoka Harbor

is an attorney at Hill Wallack, LLP in Red Bank, New Jersey. She concentrates her practice in family law issues including divorce, custody, support, domestic violence, dissolution of domestic partnerships, enforcement or modification of marital agreements, enforcement and/or modification of alimony and child support, emancipation applications, equitable distribution and post-judgment enforcement and modification.
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nAdmitted to practice in New Jersey and New York, and before the United States District Court for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, Ms. Webb has been a member of the Family Law Sections/Committees of the New Jersey State, New York State, Middlesex County and Ocean County Bar Associations. President of the Hispanic Bar Association of New Jersey, she has served on the Family Law Executive Committee of the New Jersey State Bar Association and several subcommittees, as well as the Monmouth Bar Association’s Family Law and Judicial Selection Committees. Ms. Webb has served as a Matrimonial Early Settlement Panelist in Middlesex and Ocean Counties and as an Intensive Settlement Panelist in Monmouth County. She has been a member of the New Jersey Association for Justice (NJAJ) Matrimonial Committee and has served on the Statewide Domestic Violence Working Group Committee.
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nThe creator of and contributor to the Monmouth and Ocean Family Lawyers blog, Ms. Webb has a regular column in the HBA’s quarterly newsletter entitled "Querida Abby – Dear Abby." She has been published in Divorce Magazine's Frequently Asked Questions feature and has lectured for ICLE and NJAJ.
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nMs. Webb received her J.D. from New York Law School, where she was the Section Editor of the Journal of Human Rights.
n(8/23)