Q: I’m looking for a lawyer to represent me in Burlington County New Jersey for a custody/divorce MSA.

A: Given the current pandemic rules in place, the family court system is handling motion practice, case management and some forms of trials through Zoom videoconferencing, so the cost of the retention of counsel is easier since we dont have to drive back and forth to Burlington County.

Our firm does handle matters in Burlington County but historically, we have limited it to matters involving complex financial claims or custody type disputes ( since our office is located in Millburn / Short Hills). As to the issuance of an Order to Show Cause against you, whereby your spouse has filed an application with the court seeking to limit or restrict travel for your children between your home and their home, im sure the paperwork you received tells you when your opposing papers need to be filed with the court and with the other lawyer and the return date of the application.

For purposes of retaining a lawyer to respond to the OTSC, you need to move quickly and you need to look for a lawyer who is a "Certified Matrimonial Trial Lawyer by the New Jersey Supreme Court".

There are too many lawyers advertising that they handle divorce and custody matters but dont really have the proper skill-set to handle complicated family law matters or matters that may require a trial.

The certification designation means that the lawyer has a specific number of trials completed under his belt and has a specific level of family law knowledge - less than 10% of the lawyers who claim to be family law specialists are certified by the NJ court system.

This is a very serious issue and you need to move fast. This is also a setting where you need to write out a detailed response ( line by line) to the contents of the other sides claims so that when the lawyer reads the claims, he also has your responses to help him figure out how to respond.