Caren Morrissey’s years of experience as a litigator and a Family Court Hearing Officer bring a combination of advocacy and common-sense resolution to her family law practice.
She spent the first seventeen years of practice as a litigator focused on all aspects of family law, litigating complex divorce, equitable distribution, support, custody and protection from abuse matters, while earning a reputation for being a strong advocate while also reasonable and willing to resolve matters.
Caren’s experience lead to her appointment as an Equitable Distribution Hearing Officer in the Court of Common Pleas of Chester County. In that role she honed her skills as neutral arbitrator and mediator, presiding over hundreds of equitable distribution matters. Caren was able to bring the majority of equitable distribution matters to settlement. When the most complex and difficult matters were unable to be resolved by agreement, she presided over record hearings. She presided over hearings on matters ranging from date of separation to unique and complex business valuation issues, while managing all stages of the litigation process from the initial conference, multiple stages of discovery, pre-trial conferences, settlement conferences and multi-day trials involving fact and expert witnesses, and finally the submission of lengthy and detailed trial reports and recommendations.
While serving as the Equitable Distribution Hearing Officer in Chester County, Caren simultaneously sat as a Custody Conciliator, assisting families with basic to complex custody issues. She drafted custody recommendations for court approval addressing issues such as physical custody, legal custody, relocation, vacation issues, school choice, extracurricular activities, religious activities, therapy, custody exchanges, etc.
Caren brought her experience as a Hearing Officer from Chester County to Montgomery County, where she assisted in implementing procedures, experience and professionalism to the new equitable distribution process and was instrumental in making the county one of the most well-regarded equitable distribution units in the state. She was able to bring the majority of her cases to settlement; however, for those matters in which settlement was not appropriate she resided over lengthy, complex, and often contentious equitable distribution trials.
Caren has chaired the Montgomery Bar Association Family Law Section, the Doris Jonas Freed family law Inn of Court and is a frequent speaker and presenter at the Pennsylvania Bar Association Family Law Section meetings and the Pennsylvania Bar Institute Family Law Institute.