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How Does New Jersey Family Court Decide Custody?
New Jersey parenting plans are designed to make life easier for the children involved. Child custody can be established by a judge if parents can’t agree, but it is always best if parents work together on the details. When parents agree on a child custody calendar, New Jersey family courts will honor their parenting plan unless it is not in the child’s best interest.
Don’t be intimidated by the courtroom. We’ve got your back.
What Happens During a New Jersey Child Custody Evaluation?
If a previous custody resolution process like an assessment or mediation yields no solution, the court may order a full child custody evaluation at the parents’ expense. Parents may agree to a single evaluator or each retain their own separately, and the court may also order a neutral evaluator.
It is important to your family’s happiness that you succeed in navigating custody with your child’s other parent.
New Jersey Resources and Links for Families and Children
Resources for Families
Free Legal Forms
Healthy Children
Case Law: Cases and Codes
Nurse/Family Partnership
American Academy of Pediatrics
National Alliance on Mental Illness
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists
When parents separate, families find help at the Law Offices of Jef Henninger, Esq.
How Do You Prove a Parent to Be Unfit?
Courts distinguish marital faults from misconduct that indicates an unfit parent. In other words, proof of a horrible spouse does not automatically deem that spouse an unfit parent, and seeking custody doesn’t have to eliminate parenting time. Although no one is legally required to parent perfectly, the court can decide that the dangerously imperfect are unfit.
Only specific criteria will convince a New Jersey family court to declare a parent to be unfit.
New Jersey Common Child Custody Questions
How do I file for custody of my child?
What type of custody is right for my family?
What is the difference between custody and visitation?
What are the custody laws for unmarried parents?
What should I expect during a custody battle?
How does a family court decide custody?
How do you prove a parent to be unfit?
Can we change custody or visitation arrangements?
How do I find the right custody attorney in NJ?
The Law Offices of Jef Henninger, Esq. fields a successful team of hardworking New Jersey family court pros. Our child custody lawyers know the ins and outs of the NJ family court system, and will deploy the best strategies in order to get your family back on track. Call us at 1-855-9-JEFLAW any time to discuss your case during a free consultation.
Seeking custody after divorce brings up many questions for your lawyer.
Passaic County Child Custody Lawyers help client defeat motion to change custody
Passaic County Child Custody Lawyers help client defeat motion to change custody
Tracy B.
This client made a real mess out of her situation. She had been handling her case without an attorney for years and she made a lot of wrong moves that could have cost her custody of her children. The father sought to change custody and to remove the children to another state. In addition to dating a boyfriend that was a sex offender, the client also had DYFS (now DCPP) involvement and was alleged to have a drug problem. Nevertheless, our lawyers fought back hard against the motion and it was completely defeated. The father stormed out of court in anger.
This once again shows that this firm handles both sides of custody matters.
Gloucester County Child Custody Attorney helps client win parenting time motion
T.M. Gloucester County Child Custody Motion
In this case, the client was facing a motion from the father of the child for increased visitation in Gloucester County Superior Court (Woodbury). She was very nervous because she wanted to protect the child from the father. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to do but we assured her that if we fought the case hard and shut it down, she could then be in complete control of the parenting time schedule instead of having it forced upon her. This allows her to protect her child much better since the father had a history of drug use, unstable housing and criminal activity. While it involved a lot of work, we were able to shut down the father’s motion for increased visitation.
If you have a child custody issue that you need help with, call the team of tough, smart Gloucester County Child Custody Lawyers today.
Union County Child Custody Lawyer helps Father keep custody of child
V.C. – Union County Child Custody Case
In this case, both parents were fighting over custody of their young child. The parties were not married and they had never been to court before. Due to some of the mother’s mental health issues, the father claimed custody of the child when the parties broke up. Popular thinking is that fathers cannot get custody of young children. Our Union County Child Custody Lawyers were confident going in to the court appearance that we would be able to maintain the father as the primary custody of the child. However, when the mother showed up with her own lawyer, who is clearly a top Child Custody Lawyer, we knew that this was going to be a knock down, drag out fight. It is rare to see a case with two child custody lawyers in a FD case in Union County. After arguing the case in front of the judge, the court sides with our lawyers and the father was awarded physical custody of the child. Our lawyers were also successful in making sure that the mother’s parenting time was supervised.
Don’t let someone tell you that fathers cannot get custody of children in New Jersey. It is possible. Call our Union County Child Custody Lawyers today to discuss your case.
Toms River Child Custody Lawyers help client regain unsupervised visitation
Our Toms River Child Custody Lawyers helped a client regain her parental rights today in Ocean County Superior Court. The client was facing a tough DYFS case at the same time her divorce case was going on. As a result of her cases being mismanaged by a prior attorney, her case was a total mess. In fact, these cases appeared hopeless from the surface. However, when our lawyers see a tough case, we get tougher.worked non-stop to fight against the non-stop allegations from her husband, the law guardian and DYFS. The judge was a second away from putting the client in in-patient but we prevented it from happening.continued to fight hard and at the next court appearance, we got the DYFS case dismissed and as a result, the client’s visitation was no longer supervised.
Ocean County Child Custody Lawyer helps client regain visitation rights
J.H.
Ocean County
In this case, our client (the father) had a vindictive ex call DYFS (now DCPP) on him and make false allegations of child abuse and neglect. Unfortunately, the client did not call us when dealing with the DYFS investigation. Like many people, he felt that he didn’t need a lawyer because he didn’t do anything wrong. He wasn’t using drugs so why not take a drug test? After passing several tests, he failed one. He swore that he didn’t use any drugs so we made sure that he took a hair follicle test. We then worked with DYFS to close out their investigation once we were able to show them that this was a false positive. We also made sure that DYFS sent over a report to the court. The timing of everything was very close but the court received everything the day before the motion date. As a result, the mother’s motion to suspend parenting time was denied and our client’s visitation rights were restored just in time for the holidays.
NJ Child Custody Attorneys 