New Jersey Family Law

NEW JERSEY DIVORCE : CHILD EMANCIPATION

Although the emancipation of the parties' daughter established a prima facie case for downward modification of plaintiff's New Jersey child support obligation, the reduction by only $3 per week is affirmed. Contrary to plaintiff's assertions, the New Jersey divorce judge did consider his pay stubs, but did so against the information provided in plaintiff's own certified statement of anticipated income. The judge properly determined that plaintiff failed to carry his burden of persuasion concerning a loss in overtime pay, and denied his motion without prejudice to renew with additional documentation from his employer.    Campbell v. Campbell, New Jersey App. Div., March 21, 2006

NEW JERSEY DIVORCE : CHILD EMANCIPATION

After the parties' New Jersey divorce judgment, the trial court made various rulings without a hearing. These included emancipation of the daughter, emancipation of the son, the children's college expenses and their medical costs. These issues were too serious to be decided on the papers. The decision is reversed and remanded.    O'Neill v. O'Neill, New Jersey App. Div., January 18, 2006

New Jersey Child Emancipation

The mother agreed that New Jersey child support payments for the parties' older son should terminate due to his emancipation. However, she objected to the father's retroactive reimbursement request. Although the court ordered the emancipation, the recapture application was denied. The father had inexplicably delayed for several years in filing his motion.   Polner v. Polner, New Jersey App. Div., September 27, 2005

New Legislation

Newly introduced New Jersey legislation requires child support to continue past the age of majority if the chid has a mental or physical disability which causes the child to be financially dependent on a parent. Bill S-614/A-1925 were released from the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 9, 2005. They are opposed by the New Jersey State Bar Association, presumably because existing case law already provides that such children are not legally emancipated. New Jersey Lawyer, July 1, 2005

At What Age?

Unlike other states, New Jersey divorce law does not deem a child emancipated at any particular age. Instead, the focus is event-driven, i.e., when is the child no longer economically dependent on her/his parents? In this case, the parties' 23 year-old son was not emancipated until after he received his college degree, even though that required an additional semester past the fourth year of college attendance. Colonno v. Colonno, New Jersey App. Div., April 4, 2005

Graduate School Expenses

Some states emancipate a child at age 18. But under New Jersey family law decisions, a child is not automatically emancipated at any particular age. Further, New Jersey parents can be obliged not only to pay for their child's college education, but also for graduate school. Here, the court found that the parties’ 23-year-old daughter was not emancipated merely because she had graduated from college, because she was continuing her post-graduate education in a 6 to 8 year Ph.D. program. Burg, etc. v. Burg, New Jersey App. Div., January 25, 2005.