Morristown Family Law Blog

If you are currently navigating the New Jersey civil justice system because you and your spouse decided to sever marital ties, you may have already encountered and overcome numerous legal challenges. It is important to note, however, that finalizing a divorce does not always eradicate every legal issue. In fact, in certain aspects, your problems may just be beginning, such as if you have to sell your home and find a new place to live or you need to modify the terms of your existing estate plan. Post-divorce real estate issues can impede your ability to move on in life.

Buying and selling homes can be quite stressful, even for those who have not recently come away from divorce proceedings. Property liquidation, title transfers and other issues can be complex and difficult to resolve. If you have children or if your divorce was contentious, you may already be feeling overwhelmed and worried about the future.

Not every New Jersey parent facing child custody issues is married. Many child custody situations involve co-parents who have never been married. Unlike divorce, where proceedings typically include property division or alimony issues, unmarried parents do not have to worry about such things. There are still numerous legal issues they might have to resolve, however.

In this state, a man must establish paternity before pursuing custody litigation. The mother's status is presumed, whether or not she is married. There may also be situations where a paternity test is required because a man denies that he is a child's father when another parent is petitioning the court for child support. It's also possible that one may be necessary in order to pursue claims for fathers' rights in court.

If a New Jersey parent is unable to meet a court-ordered child support obligation, he or she may petition the court for a change. A judge overseeing such a case would review the petition to determine if there is evidence of need, then grant or deny requests for modifications to an existing court order. A recent case in another state involved a woman whose ex had failed to pay child support for nearly 50 years.

She and her husband divorced in 1969. A year later, the man was ordered to make child support payments until his daughter reached age 18. Instead of adhering to the court order, however, the man reportedly wrote a bad check for the first payment, then moved to Canada and started a family with another woman. The man's former wife said that although she and her daughter lived a happy life together, they always struggled financially.

Raising kids is typically an expensive endeavor. When they are infants, parents fork out a ton of money on diapers and other baby supplies. As they grow, their needs grow with them, and by the time they are teenagers, many New Jersey parents quip that they feel like they must take out a second mortgage on their home just to afford all the sports fees, clothing and food that are part of their children's everyday needs. In divorce situations, high cost of living and other issues often prompt a need for child support modifications.

If a non-custodial parent is ordered to pay child support, he or she must adhere to the terms of the court order. If the parent loses a job, falls ill or somehow encounters some other situation that sparks a financial crisis, he or she cannot stop making support payments on time. The state understands that financial problems can be quite serious. However, there is a system in place that a paying parent must navigate in order to temporarily lessen or halt child support payments.