New Jersey Divorce and Family Lawyer BlogWith the proliferation of ways to communicate via social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and blogging sites, it has become more common in legal settings for such postings to be used as evidence in court. Mainstream media outlets have been reporting recently about an unpublished May, 2014 Appellate Division decision in the matter of State v. H.L.M., which addressed the extent to which a court’s limit on the subject matter of a litigant’s online blogging was an infringement on her Constitutional Right to free speech. Continue reading ›
Articles Posted in child support
What Happens to Child Support When a Child Enrolls in an Out of State College?
On April 28th 2014 the Appellate Division issued an unpublished decision in the post-judgment case of Fox v. Fox, A-2339-12T1, 2014 WL 1660394 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div.). The Appellate Division reversed and remanded the trial court’s decisions to deny Dorothy Fox n/k/a Lamuraglia’s motion to modify child support. Ms. Lamuraglia was seeking to terminate her child support on the grounds that the child was about to start college. Continue reading ›
Does a New Jersey Court Have to Provide Counsel and Experts to Litigants Who Do Not Pay Court Ordered Support Before Incarcerating Them?
Most times, when courts award alimony and child support the Payors comply with their court ordered support obligations. In some instances, unfortunately, compliance with such orders wains and the issue of enforcement of court ordered support obligations must be addressed by the Court. New Jersey Court Rule 1:10-3 provides a vehicle for the Payee to seek enforcement of support orders through an application for the “Enforcement of Litigant’s Rights” and provides a plethora of coercive vehicles to a court to compel compliance with court ordered support obligations. Clearly the most effective of these coercive vehicles is the ability to incarcerate the payor until compliance in the form of payment is forth coming. Continue reading ›
When Does Child Support End? – Shifting the Burden
If divorcing parties have children, the support of these children is one of the issues that needs to be addressed. In the majority of cases the “amount” of child support is fairly easy to determine – the incomes of most families fall within the range covered by the Child Support Guidelines; a formula established by Court Rule. The next question I am frequently asked (usually by the payor parent) is for how long does this child support need to be paid – usually followed by the comment: “To 18 right, since this is considered the age of majority?” Continue reading ›
The Rachel Canning Case: Can Married Parents Be Forced to Pay College Expenses the Way that Divorced Parents May Be Obligated?
United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote on behalf of the Court in the case of Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57 (2000), that “the interest of parents in the care,
custody, and control of their children — is perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests recognized by this Court.” Justice O’Connor went on to cite other decisions like Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923), wherein the Court recognized “that the ‘liberty’ protected by the Due Process Clause includes the right of parents to ‘establish a home and bring up children’ and ‘to control the education of their own.’” Continue reading ›
Calculating Child Support for Multiple Families
On December 18, 2013 the New Jersey Appellate Division published an opinion in the matter of Harte v. Hand. In the opinion, the Appellate Division addressed the issue of how to properly calculate child support on behalf of children of multiple families. Continue reading ›
Custody Disputes in New Jersey – What are the Terms That You Need to Understand?
Custody disputes can sometimes remind me of the Biblical story of King Solomon (1 Kings 3:16-28). In this story, King Solomon is tasked with
resolving an argument between two women in the same household, each of whom claimed to be the mother of an infant son. Continue reading ›
Considerations for a Divorce for Persons Over the Age of 50
According to a March, 2013 publication from the National Center for Family & Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University, authors Susan L. Brown and I-Fen Lin discussed the divorce rate for adults over the age of 50 in their article 
entitled “The Gray Divorce Revolution: Rising Divorce among Middle-aged and Older Adults, 1990-2010”. Continue reading ›
Back to School – Now Who Pays? Factors to Determine How a Child’s Higher Education Expenses are Paid by Divorced Parents
Benjamin Franklin once wrote: “An investment in education pays the best interest.” That quote by one of America’s Founding Fathers continues to be etched into our national fabric of ideals. The attainment of a college degree or some other form of higher education has become the norm and not the exception in today’s society. Continue reading ›
Child Support Obligation – What Can It Cover?
In my last post, I described the various items and expenses that are specifically built into the calculation of a child support obligation pursuant to the Child Support Guidelines in an attempt to explain and describe what a child support obligation is meant to cover. In addition to the automatic and mandatory expenses built into the Child Support Guidelines calculation of child support, there are a number of expenses that should be included, if they are incurred by a particular family, in the calculation of child support. Continue reading ›