Carolann M. Aschoff, P.C.

Focus and practice areas

Family law is the whole of what this firm does. Carolann M. Aschoff, P.C. handles divorce, child custody, child support and domestic violence matters for clients throughout New Jersey. The work covers the divorce itself and the questions that follow it, such as where the children live and how support gets set. Custody and support issues can outlast the divorce, and the firm takes on those later matters as well.

The firm also drafts wills for clients preparing or updating an estate plan. A divorce often changes who a person wants to name as a beneficiary or an executor. A client finishing a divorce can revise a will with the same firm, without walking a new office through the whole story. That keeps a client's family and estate paperwork under one roof.

Where mediation fits

Mediation runs alongside the firm's courtroom work. It gives couples a way to settle their terms with a neutral guide before a judge has to decide for them. In my opinion, having that option inside the same firm is a genuine plus, since one team can steer a case toward agreement or prepare it for a hearing as the facts require.

Both attorneys carry mediation training. Carolann Aschoff is a court-appointed family law mediator, and Annmarie Jensen is a New Jersey Superior Court Qualified Civil and Family Mediator who has also trained as a Collaborative Divorce Professional. That shared grounding shows a firm at ease working toward settlement. It also means a client can raise a mediated path with a lawyer who has sat in the mediator's chair.

How the firm began

Carolann M. Aschoff opened the firm in 1994. She had spent nine years at a general practice law office before that, so she came to family law with a working sense of how a legal office runs day to day. Since that first year, the firm has kept family law as its single focus.

That record adds up to more than thirty years of steady work in one field. A client can reasonably expect the firm to have handled matters like their own before, whether it is a contested custody dispute or an uncontested divorce with few complications. Family law in New Jersey has shifted over that span, and a firm focused on it has had to keep current. A firm that has tracked those changes brings that history to a new client's case.

Who handles the cases

The firm names two attorneys, which keeps the roster small and the lines of responsibility clear. Carolann M. Aschoff leads the firm as its founder, and Annmarie Jensen concentrates her practice on family law and matrimonial matters. A client deals with the lawyers whose names are on the door.

Jensen earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Miami and a Juris Doctor from Rutgers. Her business background and her law degree give her a footing for the financial side of a divorce, including support and the division of property. With two attorneys on the family docket, a client has more than one lawyer who knows the file. Property questions can decide how a divorce lands for each side, so that grounding matters.

Certifications and recognition

Aschoff is certified by the Supreme Court of New Jersey as a Certified Matrimonial Law Attorney. The firm notes that fewer than 2 percent of lawyers in the state hold this designation, and it comes from the state's highest court, which gives it real weight. In 2002, the Hudson County Bar Association named her Matrimonial Attorney of the Year, a recognition from the local bar. That kind of honor comes from other lawyers who practice in the same courts.

She has also chaired the Matrimonial Early Settlement Panel Committee, a New Jersey Supreme Court program aimed at settling divorce cases early. As a reviewer, I read a role like that as a sign the courts trust her judgment in matrimonial disputes, in cases well beyond her own. The Hudson County honor and the panel role both point to standing among other family lawyers.

How the firm works with clients

The firm has a standing policy that two attorneys stay familiar with every case. A client then has an informed lawyer to turn to when one of them is in court or out of the office. For a family matter that can run over many months, that coverage carries weight, and it means a second set of eyes has read the file. The firm states this as a general rule for how it runs a case.

The firm offers evening appointments for people who cannot step away during the workday, and it accepts major credit cards. It runs three offices, with its Jersey City base joined by locations in Bayonne and Livingston. The evening hours and the three locations make the firm easier to reach for a working parent. A nearer office and a later appointment can be what lets a busy client keep the case moving.