The statement, “There's an app for that” has become a universal answer for doing just about anything.    However, are there apps that can help ease the divorce process – and more importantly – are they reliable?  Well, that depends on what you're looking to accomplish.  Communication and task-oriented apps for staying in touch with your kids and making support payments can be quite helpful.  For example, SqaureHub is commonly used by divorced parents who want to keep up with their children's lives.  The app has features similar to Facebook, but it provides a private network just for you and your family.  That means you can post, message, and share photos and videos instantly with your children, while keeping everything on a single, private network.

Apps such as SupportPay helps you manage your child support payments.  This app can be tracked by both parents, and it allows payments to be made directly through the app.  Paying parents can post payments on their own, or have it garnished from their wages.  In addition, SupportPay can be used to pay and track other type of support such as alimony, arrears and medical costs.  The ability for both parents to have instant, precise records is extremely important, especially for tax filing purposes. 

If you want to combine communication and finances, you may want to try 2houses.  This is largely a co-parenting app with features such as a shared calendar, notifications and instant messaging.  On top of that, it offers simple financial management tools for tracking shared expenses and financial reporting.  While the finance features aren't quite as helpful as SupportPay, it's a free app that may come in use as a backup to the two previous apps.  SquareHub and SupportPay, by the way, are also free downloads. 

If you're willing to spend a few dollars, there are some divorce apps that can help simplify the divorce process.  For $4.99, you can purchase the Divorce Log app, which helps you keep track of all the documents pertaining to your divorce.  The app can also be used by your lawyer, social worker, psychologists, etc., during and after your divorce.  Helpful features include logs that you can view by day, month, or as a total, a notepad for clarifications and reminders, and the ability to email documents directly from the app. 

As helpful as they are, you may have noticed that none of these apps offer legal advice.  That's because legal advice should only be obtained from a licensed attorney.  Questions on issues such as negotiating custody, how much alimony to ask for, how to divide the marital assets, should not be answered by an app, regardless of how good it looks and/or sounds.  Deciding on these issues requires extensive knowledge of New Jersey's divorce laws and court procedures, so it's imperative to get your information from an experienced family law attorney.  The attorneys of Villani & DeLuca, P.C. would be happy to assist you with all your divorce related questions and concerns.