The jurisdiction of the Family Part of the New Jersey Superior Court to make orders determining custody is based upon the common law doctrine of parens patriae, which imposes upon the court an affirmative duty to protect the best interests of minor children. The members the New Jersey Judiciary that…
New Jersey’s removal statute, N.J.S.A. 9:2-4, bars a parent from permanent relocating a child from the State of New Jersey without the other parent’s consent or the permission of the court. In a previous 2013 blog, my colleague, Daniel Burton, Esq., discussed at length the standard created under our…
Generally, the concept that in domestic violence matters the concept that a defendant could defend oneself by asserting that their violence towards the plaintiff was deserved or provoked in some way is an abhorrent concept, and would likely not be a successful argument in defending against against an accusation of…
The first Tuesday of every November serves as Election Day in New Jersey and across the United States. Immigration, both legal and illegal, continues to be controversial issue in current elections. On Election Day Eve, November 2, 2015, the New Jersey Appellate Division published their Opinion in OYPC v. JCP, —…
More and more litigants today are agreeing to arbitrate matters outside of the public sphere of the courthouse and hire a private arbitrator to resolve their dispute in lieu of a judge in the court doing so. In the context of a business or contract dispute, the aggrieved parties might…
On Tuesday, August 11, 2015, a New York court ordered the children of the television “Gossip Girl” actress, Kelly Rutherford, to be returned to their father, Daniel Giersch, who has been living with the children in Monaco since 2012. Rutherford and Giersch wed in 2007 and welcomed their first child, Hermes, the…
Modern science and technology have afforded infertile couples the ability to have a child of their own through in vitro fertilization. Recently, stories in the mainstream media have discussed the legal disputes between couples who froze fertilized embryos before they split up where one of the members of the couple…
In June, 2015 a judge in Oakland County, Michigan held three children (ages 15, 10 and 9) in contempt of court and sent them to a juvenile detention facility. In that case, the children’s parents were in the midst of a high conflict five year divorce that included allegations of abuse…
A recent trial court decision by the Honorable Sohail Mohammed, J.S.C., from the Superior Court of New Jersey in Passaic County, is making headlines for its precedent setting nature combined with the “scratch your head” intrigue certain headlines provide. More specifically, Judge Mohammed recently made a ruling that a man…
Parental disagreements as to a child’s upbringing are probably about as old as humankind. Nowhere are these conflicts more prevalent than in today’s modern society where children are bombarded with content from the internet, television, phones and computers. Parents often disagree on what content is appropriate and inappropriate for their child to see…