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Checked OutFamilyLawyers.com is the best way to find New Jersey
child custody, child support, and child visitation lawyers and family law attorneys, along with New Jersey laws and information.
To find a checked out family lawyer, enter your city and state, above, and click "Find My Lawyer."
Want more information? See How It Works
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New Jersey Child Custody, Child Support
and Child Visitation Lawyers |
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Child Support, Child Custody and Visitation in New Jersey
The laws of New Jersey governing child support, child custody and child visitation are contained in the New Jersey Permanent Statues, available at this link.
To fully understand New Jersey law, it may be necessary to read and interpret statutes with case law and regulatory law. It is also important to know if law is up to date. For these and other reasons, it is always best to consult with a qualified family law attorney to know how the law applies to your particular situation. The following legal summaries are not intended as legal advice and should not be relied on as such. They are intended only as an introduction to the way that the law functions in these areas.
Child Custody in New Jersey
In New Jersey, custody determinations are based on "the best interest of the child." A court may consider the following factors in determining custody:
• parents' ability to agree, communicate, and cooperate on matters relating to the children;
• parents' willingness to accept custody and any history of unwillingness to allow visitation, unless such unwillingness was based on substantiated abuse;
• interaction and relationship of the children with their parents and siblings;
• any history of domestic violence;
• safety of the children and the safety of either parent from physical abuse by the other;
• preference of the children when they are of sufficient age and capacity to make a decision;
• needs of the children;
• stability of the home environment offered;
• quality and continuity of the children's education;
• fitness of the parents;
• geographical proximity of the parents' homes;
• extent and quality of the time spent with the children prior to and subsequent to the separation;
• parents' employment responsibilities;
• ages and number of the children.
In some cases, the Court may also interview the children themselves or appoint a guardian to represent their interests.
Child Support in New Jersey
Child support is a court-ordered payment by one parent to the custodial parent of a minor child, typically after divorce or separation. In New Jersey, the amount of child support that parents are obligated to pay is based on the income of both parents combined. Courts consider the following factors in determining the amount and duration of child support:
• needs of the child
• standard of living and economic circumstances of each parent
• all sources of income and assets of each parent
• earning ability of each parent
• need and capacity of the child for education
• age and health of each parent and child
• income, assets and earning ability of the child
• responsibility of the parent for court ordered support of others
• reasonable debts and liabilities of each parent and child
• any other factors the court deems relevant and just
New Jersey law generally requires both biological and adoptive parents to support a child until:
• The child reaches the age of majority (support may be required for a longer period if the child has special needs or is in college)
• The child goes on active military duty
• The child is declared emancipated by a court
• Parental rights and responsibilities are terminated
If a parent falls behind on his or her child support payments, the matter may be addressed in an enforcement hearing where the parent will be given an opportunity to explain why he or she has not kept up with the court-ordered payment schedule. If that parent still does not pay, steps to enforce the order will be taken. These may include garnishment of wages, tax refunds, or lottery winnings. These may also seizure of assets, such as insurance proceeds, cars, or real estate.
Child Visitation in New Jersey
Visitation refers to the right of a non-custodial parent to spend time with a child on a scheduled or regular basis. New Jersey law presumes that a child’s best interests are generally served by having strong relationships with both parents. Thus, under New Jersey law, when one parent is granted primary custody of a child, the other parent is generally granted reasonable visitation (also known as parenting time) unless a court determines that a parent’s conduct would have a substantial adverse effect on a child.
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Finding your New Jersey Family Lawyer |
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CheckedOutFamilyLawyers.com provides the best way to find New Jersey child custody lawyers, child support lawyers,
and child visitation lawyers and attorneys, along with
New Jersey state child custody, child support, and child visitation laws and information.
To find the right family lawyer for you, it's critical to use a method
that makes sense. Two common methods make little sense:
Advertisements & Attorney Listing Services …
Is the family lawyer with the biggest ad in the phone book the best family lawyer for you? Not likely.
It's easy to see why you might not find the attorney who's right for you through an advertisement.
How about services that merely list attorneys, often on websites? Are they any better? Probably not. Listing
services are typically just advertisements. Like the phone book, cash is usually the only criteria for a service to list a family lawyer.
Ask yourself: Do listing services screen attorneys in any way?
Do they check …
- • References of other attorneys?
- • References of former clients?
- • If a family lawyer has a disciplinary history?
- • If a family lawyer is properly licensed in New Jersey?
- • If family law or family law a significant part of a lawyer's practice?
Listing services typically fail to answer any of these questions. They simply leave it up to you.
Client Referrals …
Client (non-lawyer) referrals usually make little sense. Why? Because clients rarely know enough about the process of practicing law to
understand what their family lawyer actually did for them. Or to understand if their family lawyer did a quality job for them compared to
other family lawyers.
Could they have achieved a better result with another attorney? Were the results achieved by the family lawyer typical for that lawyer?
It's not that client referrals can't be helpful, but they should be only one of several criteria that a person uses to hire an attorney.
The CheckedOutFamilyLawyers.com Method
CheckedOutFamilyLawyers.com provides the best way to find a quality,
prescreened New Jersey family lawyer in your area. What do we mean by prescreened? We mean that we do the hard part. It's free, easy, and confidential.
We have a lawyer who works for us check out family lawyers and family lawyers for you, by doing out the following:
- (1). We make sure family law or family law is a substantial part of the lawyer's practice
- (2). We make sure the family lawyers are properly licensed in New Jersey
- (3). We make sure the family lawyers have no public record of professional discipline
- (4). We speak to three former clients of the family lawyer who have had favorable experiences
- (5). We speak to three other attorneys who speak highly of the family lawyer and their expertise in family law
There are approximately 40,000 lawyers who are resident, active attorneys in New Jersey. In order to check out the licensure for any New Jersey lawyer, you can call the New Jersey Board of Bar Examiners at 609-984-2111. In order to check out the disciplinary history for any New Jersey lawyer, you can go to the following link.
You can do some of what we do yourself. You can use our How to Check Out Lawyers
page to check out a specific New Jersey
family lawyer who you are already thinking about using. You can also use the links to check out any other
New Jersey lawyer. Alternatively, you can use CheckedOutFamilyLawyers.com to learn more about verified New Jersey
family lawyers who we've already checked out.
Our New Jersey family lawyers cover the entire state of New Jersey and include lawyers located in Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, Elizabeth, Edison, Essex County, Hudson County, Passaic County, Union County, Middlesex County, Atlantic County, Bergen County, Burlington County, Camden County, Cape May County, Cumberland County, Essex County, Gloucester County, Mercer County, Monmouth County, Morris County, Ocean County, Somerset County, Sussex County, Warren County, Woodbridge Township, Toms River Township, Hamilton Township, Trenton, Camden, Clifton, Brick Township, Cherry Hill, East Orange, Passaic, Union City, Middletown Township, Gloucester Township, Bayonne, Irvington, Old Bridge Township, and Lakewood Township.
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