Matrimonial Engagement Process

The engagement agreement: scope, the conflict check and the retainer are fixed in writing, and the assignment is defined as one party or both and as employability, earning capacity or both questions. Because the assessment is a vocational opinion for a support or equitable distribution proceeding, the court schedule and case management deadlines are written in at the same time so the report lands before the hearing it serves.

Education, employment and financial records that bear on vocational capacity and earning history: transcripts and certifications, the work history with dates and duties, and the earnings record. Medical documentation of any restriction the party claims, since restrictions are applied rather than assumed. And the procedural facts: which party is assessed, and the court schedule and case management deadlines the report must meet.

No. The vocational interview and standardized testing are scheduled when appropriate, typically when the party's skill currency, education or work history cannot be documented from the records alone, or when the case turns on re-entry after time out of the workforce. The in-person versus file review comparison sets out when a records-only assessment is adequate, and the choice is made at scoping.

A written report on employability, the occupations realistically open to the party, whether openings exist, the wages those occupations pay, and where relevant the retraining path and the timeline to full earning capacity, documented for alimony and equitable distribution determinations. The report states what the party could earn; it does not predict whether the court will impute income or at what figure, which is the court's determination.

Yes, and overemployment claims on the same terms. The underemployment question asks whether current earnings fall below what the party's vocational profile supports in the local labor market, answered with the wage range of the occupations identified and evidence that openings exist. The return to work and retraining questions follow the same method, and the same analysis serves the party asserting the claim and the party contesting it.

The vocational discipline, led by Matthew Putts, the Chief of Vocational Services, a licensed professional counselor and certified rehabilitation counselor. A matrimonial assessment is a vocational evaluation applied to prospective earning capacity for support purposes rather than to the effect of an injury, so it uses the same labor market data and methodology as a personal injury evaluation, and the expert who prepares it testifies on it.