Narcissist Divorce Lawyer Near You

Guiding You Through the Complex Process of Divorcing a Narcissist

Ending a marriage to a spouse you no longer get along with can be a difficult, emotional process on its own, but divorcing a spouse with narcissism can be exceptionally challenging. Not only do you have to face the usual complications that can come with any divorce, but you also have to deal with the often entitled, condescending attitude of someone with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. You should not have to struggle with this alone, especially if you have children whose best interests you need to consider during your divorce.

If you have reason to believe your partner is a narcissist, you should hire a highly experienced lawyer to guide you through the divorce or legal separation process. A narcissistic spouse can cause emotional damage through a constant lack of empathy and inflated self-worth, particularly when they feel you are criticizing or rejecting them by ending the marriage. Fortunately, the lawyers at Edens Law Group, LLC, have extensive knowledge of divorces involving narcissistic behavior and other mental health challenges. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us for legal assistance during this complicated time. We’re here to answer any questions you may have, so call our New Jersey law firm today for a consultation with caring attorneys.

What Are Narcissistic Behaviors?

We often think of a narcissist as someone who constantly thinks about themselves or loves to be the center of attention. While this can be true, it can also refer to a mental health condition called Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, .5 to 1% of U.S. adults have been diagnosed with NPD. Additionally, experts believe that thousands of cases of Narcissistic Personality Disorder go undiagnosed each year.

Whether your spouse is medically diagnosed or not, the more you know about narcissism, the better prepared you’ll be to leave your marriage or deal with any other family law issue that involves them. Typically, narcissists lack sympathy and tend to take very little responsibility for their actions, especially when being hurtful to others. For this reason, troubled relationships are quite common among narcissists.

Narcissists often display the following behaviors and characteristics:

• Arrogance
• Unreasonable expectations
• Anger
• Resistance to criticism
• Dramatic attitude
• Takes advantage of others
• Needs to be revered and celebrated

If your spouse displays these or similar traits due to Narcissistic Personality Disorder or other personality disorders, the divorce process may be more intimidating and emotionally draining than usual. While anyone can benefit from getting legal advice from family lawyers during divorce, those dealing with high-conflict divorce cases due to narcissist spouses are in particular need of legal help. Call our New Jersey family law firm today if you want to speak with an experienced family law attorney during this challenging time as you prepare to begin your high-conflict divorce case.

What Are the Specific Challenges of Divorcing a Narcissist?

Diagnosing NPD is extremely hard without an expert opinion, thus making it difficult to recognize a narcissist when you’re married to them. Even if your spouse exhibits some of the behaviors mentioned above, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a narcissist unless they’ve been diagnosed.

One must think of narcissism as a spectrum. On one end, there’s the full-blown personality disorder, and on the other end, they might only possess a few traits. The more traits a person has, the more difficult it will be to stay in partnership with them, especially during conflicts. So, as you might imagine, narcissistic individuals can make it incredibly difficult to end the marriage, get custody, enforce child support orders, or do anything else that could hurt their ego and reduce their control over the family.

This means you should expect to deal with narcissistic behavior involving nearly every step of your divorce. This is especially the case when you seek to take away something or someone they perceive as only theirs to control, such as children, money, or pets. So, whether you’re deciding who gets custody of the children or trying to divide your shared assets, you can expect a narcissist to attempt to gain control over the situation just to spite you, even if they don’t truly care about the assets or custody arrangements. Their goal is to win the case to make themselves look and feel better and show they have power over you.

More specifically, narcissists tend to display the following type of behavior during divorce:

• Financial abuse: Narcissistic people like to be in control to ensure others have to depend on them, so your spouse might hide important information about your shared finances and make it hard for you to access the money you need to pay bills during the divorce
• Smear campaigns: Your spouse might spread rumors about you and claim to be the victim to harm your reputation and make themselves look better to friends and family during the divorce process
• Gaslighting: They might deny reality or make false claims to try to make you doubt your own experiences and memories of the marriage
• Threatening violence: The idea of losing control of the situation can infuriate and terrify a narcissist, so they might try to maintain their perceived power by verbally threatening or physically abusing you unless you do what they want
• Delaying the legal process: If they know you want to end the marriage as soon as possible, they might delay the process by ignoring communications from the judge or lawyers, refusing to sign documents or attend meetings, or making unreasonable demands that only serve to make the legal process more expensive and exhausting for you
• Using their children as leverage: Even if your spouse is not the primary caretaker of the children or even particularly involved in their lives, they might decide to fight for sole custody of them as soon as they realize that this arrangement could hurt you and benefit them. In some cases, they might use child custody as a bargaining chip to get what they truly want, telling you they’ll agree to share custody only if you give them additional assets or avoid pursuing spousal support.

If you’re worried about dealing with these and other types of harmful behavior during divorce, you need to prepare for your case by hiring an experienced divorce lawyer who understands narcissistic abuse in family law cases. This is especially important if you’re a victim of domestic violence, as narcissistic abuse often becomes worse – not better – when you decide to leave the situation. You may need help getting a restraining order and finding other ways to protect yourself and your children as you leave a dangerous situation. Our skilled attorneys understand this due to years of experience dealing with high-conflict divorce cases for clients throughout New Jersey, so call us for an initial consultation with a great lawyer who will protect your best interest during your case.

How Can You Keep Your Sanity During Divorce Proceedings?

What’s important to understand from a legal perspective is that divorcing a narcissist will not follow the typical rules of a negotiated resolution. However reasonable you may want to be regarding your family law issue, you’re dealing with someone who doesn’t follow the rules or typical social norms. This is why you need legal guidance from family law attorneys who know how to navigate complex cases involving narcissistic people.

At our family law firm, we understand that the process of divorce can be emotionally stressful and overwhelming for anyone, regardless of personality disorders. But it is especially intimidating and exhausting for someone whose spouse tends to manipulate, threaten, gaslight, and refuse to take any responsibility for the breakdown of the relationship. This is why we encourage you to find ways to protect yourself and your sanity as you prepare for the legal process to begin.

When we take on cases from clients dealing with narcissistic abuse, we work hard to provide support from start to finish, which includes helping our clients understand what to expect and how to deal with it. To start, we believe it’s important to remind yourself why you’re initiating the divorce process. If you have children, we advise you to focus on their welfare rather than the struggles your spouse is causing. Staying positive during a difficult time like this can benefit you and your children and help you stay focused on your end goal.

You should also be sure to set boundaries, keeping all communication with your narcissist former spouse to a minimum during and after the divorce. If they have questions for you about the case, your lawyers can talk to each other and relay any necessary information that way. When you must communicate with your former spouse, such as when co-parenting, try to keep your communications brief and informative. You should provide only the information they need and avoid saying anything they might try to use against you in the future. You should also keep in mind that it’s best not to call out their narcissistic behavior, as they’ll likely become defensive at the first sign of criticism and lash out at you, further complicating and dragging out the legal process.

You can prepare yourself for the typical narcissistic tactics to occur – such as gaslighting and false accusations – by making sure to document and save everything. This way, if they make any claims that are not true or that they’re trying to twist in their favor, you have emails, text messages, pictures, receipts, or bank statements to prove that they’re lying or manipulating the situation. This is especially important when it comes to finances, as they might try to claim you’re entitled to fewer assets or more debts than is fair.

Finally, we encourage our clients to seek help from professionals who have experience dealing with narcissists. This might include talking to a therapist who can help you find effective ways of communicating with your ex-spouse when necessary while keeping conflict to a minimum and taking care of your own emotional well-being. You should also hire a divorce lawyer who has assisted numerous clients through family law issues involving narcissists. Call our law office today if you’re concerned about how to prepare for a high-conflict divorce with a narcissist, as our team understands the complexities of cases like yours and is equipped to help you handle the road ahead.

What Legal Services Will You Need from a Family Law Attorney?

While your spouse’s narcissistic behavior might make your divorce more contentious than average, you will still need to resolve the same types of family law issues as any other divorce. This is why you should look for a divorce lawyer who has years of experience handling a wide variety of common family law matters, including:

• Property division
• Spousal support
• Child support
• Child custody
• Visitation
• Prenuptial agreements
• Post-nuptial agreements
• Mediation
• Modification of court orders

The specific legal services you’ll need from New Jersey attorneys will depend on the unique aspects of your case. For example, if you have children with your spouse, you will need to discuss child custody, visitation, and child support arrangements before your divorce can be final. If you can agree to these issues outside of court, a judge can review and approve your arrangements. Of course, someone with Narcissistic Personality Disorder is unlikely to make this process easy on you, so you will likely need litigation help from a skilled attorney who can argue your case in court.

You will also need to determine how to divide your shared assets, which can be a challenging process even when your spouse isn’t a narcissist. It’s best to consult with an attorney who knows how New Jersey’s equitable distribution model of asset division works and can use this knowledge to get you the assets you’re entitled to. During this legal step, your spouse might try to hide assets from you or claim that marital property is actually their sole property and not subject to equitable distribution. However, our attorneys know how to identify and fight against this common narcissist tactic so you get the assets you deserve.

Similarly, narcissists are often unwilling to agree to pay alimony, even when there is a significant difference between their income and their spouse’s income. Our attorneys are aware of this common issue and have the legal skills and resources to resolve it, whether through mediation or litigation in court. We want you to get the favorable outcome you deserve, so you can count on us to work tirelessly for you when it comes to alimony, property division, custody, and other family law issues.

If you’re worried about these or other matters that affect your life – including getting a restraining order after suffering domestic violence – please reach out to us for a consultation with our caring attorneys. We fully understand the importance of having legal guidance throughout your case, especially when you’re trying to divorce a narcissistic person. If you’re eager to help your lawyer understand the kind of person you’re divorcing before you get assistance on your family law case, call our firm today to explain the details and get the legal advice you need.

Are You Ready to Seek Legal Representation from a Trusted Narcissist Divorce Lawyer Near You?

By choosing an attorney who is experienced in dealing with narcissistic personalities, you’ll have someone who understands the difficulties of the disorder and how to navigate them. At Edens Law Group, LLC, we’re committed to excellence and will be there to listen and support you every step of the way, even when your spouse isn’t willing to. We know how difficult it is to divorce a narcissist who will likely fight you on every issue, so you can count on us to treat you with the respect and dignity you deserve as we take steps to protect your legal rights during divorce.

After having helped countless clients through high-conflict family law cases, we feel like we’ve seen it all and can confidently resolve even the most complex issues families might struggle with. If you’re ready to get help with every step of your case when divorcing a narcissist, call our New Jersey law office at 908-529-0353 to schedule a consultation with a narcissist divorce lawyer near you.