By finally coming to a custody agreement, you’ve walked a delicate tightrope to balance the schedules and needs of everyone in your family. Perhaps you needed a court to intervene in your contentious relationship and settle everything. However, when circumstances change and something isn’t working, you might find yourself needing to change your parenting time arrangements.

If you cannot follow the established custody schedule, do not disrupt or ignore it as you please. Doing so would affect your standing with the NJ family court, who will not smile upon you for interfering with the plan. You and your spouse can consent to modifications together, tackling conflicts yourselves. However, lacking a court order, this kind of informal change would not be enforceable in the future.

Justifying changes to a parenting plan takes more steps if you’re relying on family courts to modify your child custody arrangements. You’ll need to file motions, return to court, and undergo additional hearings and evaluations. You must be able to prove that the best interests of the child have shifted in response to changing circumstances in your life or family dynamic.

Wondering what is a substantial and material change of circumstances? NJ family courts recognize several valid examples that could negatively affect your child:

• Accusations of abuse
• Child articulating reasonable change in preference contrary to existing parenting plans
• Child entering school age
• Custodial parent moving in with a new paramour or roommate
• Grades dropping or failing attendance at school
• Intoxication of the custodial parent
• One parent fails to adhere to existing parenting time order
• Relocation resulting in too much time and resources spent traveling between homes

Call us at 1-855-9-JEFLAW any time to discuss your case

Let us request a modification to your child custody order. The timelines and procedures of a custody court confuse parents regularly. Our experienced team of family law attorneys at the Law Office of Jef Henninger, Esq. provide fast, invaluable guidance for families. Give us a call any time at 1-855-9-JEFLAW to discuss how we can help your family win.