Some family law practitioners treat the Rules of Evidence as suggestions. Although judges may relax the rules, N.J.R.E. 101(a)(3), make no mistake, you must know and be able to use them. This article is intended to give an overview of evidence issues and the accompanying rules that are frequently encountered in Family Part litigation. If you view the Rules of Evidence as a mosaic—with each rule playing its part in the overall picture—they may prove to be an enjoyable part of your practice. They may also provide a tactical advantage over your adversary.

One of our favorite rules is N.J.R.E. 106, also referred to as the doctrine of completeness. The rule requires a party who has introduced a writing/recording to introduce, contemporaneously, any other part of the writing/recording that "in fairness ought to be considered at the same time." In practice, we used this rule during our adversary's direct examination to discredit their mental health expert. In that case, which involved an alimony obligor who sought to eliminate his support payments based on "disability," the expert cited to the definition of "malingering," which in lay terms means "faking sick," within the DSM-V (as in, the expert opined the obligor was not malingering). As we followed along with the expert, we realized that he excluded a key component of the definition. We objected and the expert was then forced to read that malingering should be strongly suspected where: "the individual is referred by an attorney to the clinician for examination or the individual self-refers while litigation or criminal charges are pending." Note: you may also encounter completeness issues with the use of deposition transcripts. If so, you should look to Rule 4:16-1(d).