Emancipation in New Jersey - How to end child support

In some states, such as Florida, child support ends at a certain age (no later than 19 in Florida). What shocks most people in New Jersey is that there is no end date for child support. Child support in New Jersey will continue forever unless and until you file a motion for emancipation and same is granted by a judge. I strongly advise that you hire a New Jersey child support lawyer to file the motion to terminate your child support. Trying to file a motion with a lawyer can lead to disaster. But how do you know when to file?

When to file for emancipation in New Jersey

If you are divorced from the other parent, check your PSA to see if emancipation events were included. While this language is not 100%, it is a good place to start. I say its not 100% because if your PSA says 4 years of college and your child needs to go 5 years, almost every single judge will allow your child to go to school that extra year.

In all cases, emancipation analysis works like this:

Is your child at least 18 years old? (If yes, move on)

Has the child completed/dropped out of high school? (if yes, move on)

-If child is going to college:

Is the child going to college full time? (no emancipation)

Is the child going to college part time (possible emancipation)

Did the child complete college ( file motion for emancipation)

-If child is not going to college:

Is the child going to some other school full time? (no emancipation)

Is the child working full time? (possible emancipation)

If the child living out of the home? (emancipation)

As you can see from the above analysis, the big issue in the vast majority of emancipation cases involves the college status of the child. Most children cannot (or choose not to) complete college in four years. Some children fails classes. Some parents have no idea as to whether or not the child is even going to college, what classes are being taken and when graduation is expected. Thus, it is difficult if not impossible for these parents to figure out when an emancipation motion should be filed.

Only a New Jersey child support attorney can properly guide these parents as to the correct course of actions. The key is to start early. Too many people wait years to do something. As a result, they may be leaving a ton of money on the table. It can be difficult to get a court to order the other parent to reimburse you if you have over paid. It can be even more difficult to collect. Furthermore, if you wait, you give the other parent the chance to fix the situation and thus destroying your chances of filing a successful motion.

An attorney can almost always get access to school records to see when is the best chance to file the motion and to get information such as grades that will be used in the motion. To avoid having to go through this every few months, the attorney can get the court to force the other side to provide these records to you so that you will know the best time to file the motion.

A full-time semester is 12 credits. So, if the child signs up for less than 12 credits, withdraws credits after starting them so less than 12 are completed or if some classes are failed so that credit is only earned for less than 12 credits, the court will not consider the child to be going to school full-time. As a result, it may be time to file a motion for emancipation. However, only a New Jersey child support lawyer can advise you as to the right timing. Most people screw up the timing issues because they do not seek professional help.

Courts bend over backwards for the child. Keep that in mind at all times as the old saying "you snooze, you lose" fits here perfectly. A common situation I see is something like this: Child delays going to school for one or two semesters. Finally goes to school, but either takes less than 12 credits or the child does not complete 12 credits (either withdraws or fails). This goes on for several semesters. Eventually, the child racks up a few good semesters. Now that the child is in his/her 20's, the other parent gets upset and wants to file for child support as he/she realizes that he/she could be paying child support past the child's 23rd birth day. However, in this situation, the parent may be out of luck because he/she waited. A court will not punish a child for screwing up early and then getting back on track. To the contrary, if the parent would have hired a lawyer right away, child support may have been terminated at (or near) the end of the first part-time semester.

Retroactive emancipation

Retroactive emancipation is possible. That is, you can ask the court to emancipate the child back to a certain date. So, if your child graduated college in 2007 and you waited until 2011 to file the motion, the court will likely emancipate (if you ask) the child back to 2007. Getting the money back from the other parent though may be difficult to impossible (based upon recent case law and other issues). However, if you are in arrears, you can have those arrears wiped out due to the retroactive emancipation. Again, you'll need to speak to your New Jersey child support lawyer about this.

Emancipation means no support obligation

I've seen some people argue that the child should be emancipated but that the parent should still have to pay for health insurance or some other costs. Please be advised that emancipation cuts off the entire duty to support the child. That means, no child support payments, health insurance, life insurance, college costs, etc. Of course, the parent can still give the child anything but no one can force the parent to do this.

College expenses

Child support and college expenses are separate but related concepts. As indicated above, emancipation cuts off all support. While discussing issues of emancipation, your New Jersey child support attorney may find other ways to save you money if emancipation is not an option. For example, if the child is over 18, you may be able to get your child support reduced since the guidelines do not apply to children over 18. If the child is living away at college, than your child support will likely be reduced to just a fraction of what you are paying since the child cannot live in two places at once.

Child support for other children

Another issue that comes up is impact of emancipation on the child support paid for other children. When there are a number of children and one is emancipated, the child support will need to be recalculated since child support for two (or more) children is higher than child support for just one child. Please note again that this is not automatic. You have to force the court to do all of this and if you do not include the right paperwork, you may not get the results that you want.

Clearly, there are a number of issues when it comes to emancipation in New Jersey. Getting an attorney is a good investment for just about everybody since these cases rarely get very expensive. So, it should only take you one to three months of no or reduced child support to recoup the money you paid to your attorney. Again, doing this by yourself could cause more problems that would make it more expensive to hire an attorney. Since most New Jersey child support attorneys (such as myself) offer free consultations, there is no reason not to call one before you do anything.

The Law Offices of Jef Henninger, Esq. has nine offices in New Jersey. Visit the New Jersey Child Support Lawyer for more information.