NJ: Dissolving a Civil Union Takes Longer, Costs More Than Divorce

For same-sex couples unhappy in their civil unions, breaking up is hard to do. For starters, ending a civil union is called "dissolution," not "divorce," and legal experts say the difference between those two words has created confusion over which laws and cases apply to civil unions. "You end up with one set of rules for one thing and another set of rules for another thing," said Stephen Hyland, 56, a family practice lawyer in Cherry Hill who represents gay clients. Lawyers familiar with the issue also say it’s harder to divvy up assets or assign alimony because there’s virtually no case precedent for ending civil unions and divorce precedents are not always applied to dissolutions. Sorting out the unions then can take longer and cost clients more than it would if they were ending a traditional marriage. Full Story from NJ.com: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/12/nj_gay_couples_looking_for_a_c.html

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