In a recent decision, the appellate division has addressed the proper procedure for adjudicating a parent’s request to eliminate his obligation to pay child support and for college, when there is a question of whether the relationship with his child has been compromised.
In Zapata, v. Zapata, a father appealed the trial court orders
A recent Appellate Division case reminds us of the potential pitfalls of negotiating contingent issues in property settlement agreements, specifically as it relates to contribution to future college costs of children born of the marriage.
In Zegarski v. Zegarski, the parties had four children, with the two oldest already attending in-state college at the
The Appellate Division’s newly published (precedential) decision in Avelino-Catabran v. Catabran provides another lesson to practitioners and litigants about the language used in settlement agreements and how such language, if unambiguous and without basis to modify, will likely be upheld in matrimonial matters. The specific dispute involved college payments for the parties’ older child and
In the return of our New Jersey Family Law Podcast Series, we are proud to present our fifth installment discussing child support and emancipation. This has been a hot topic in recent months, especially following the Rachel Canning lawsuit from earlier this year. Enjoy!
Listen to the Podcast and download the transcript here.
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Emancipation of a college student – when does it happen? When should it happen? In the wake of the Rachel Canning matter, emancipation is a hot button topic in New Jersey. Generally, the law provides that a child is emancipated when he or she is no longer within the parental “sphere of influence and responsibility.”
The Canning case has dominated the news in New Jersey and points beyond over the last two weeks. You know, the so-called “spoiled teen” that moved out of her parents house, and among other thing, sued to have them pay for college. Robert Epstein has blogged on it several times on this blog. While it
We have written many times on this blog about the dangers of using social media in connection with an ongoing divorce, custody dispute, domestic violence matter, and more. Apparently Rachel Canning, the New Jersey teen suing her parents for financial support and college payments, is not a subscriber to the blog. If she were,
You may have heard about the hot news story that continues to gain traction nationwide where a New Jersey teen sued her parents in the Morris County Superior Court for financial support, private high school tuition, college payments, and attorney fees. It even made the cover of today’s Star Ledger. She is seeking an
It seems with greater frequency, a divorced parent will argue that he should not have to pay for a child’s college (a New Jersey requirement) because he has a poor relationship with the child and, relatedly, had no say in the education decision making process (i.e., what college, at what cost, etc.). Since a parent’s
At the start of the week when most parents who have college students are writing that second semester check (gulp), the Appellate Division has decided a non precedential case in which a father objected to the trial court’s decision to make him pay 27% of his daughter’s college expenses at a private college. The case brings to the forefront situations in which the realities of limited available income come head to head with obligations for college expenses. Throw in a poor relationship between one parent and the college student, and you have a mess.
In the case of Caruso v. Whitlock, the father’s income was such that his basic child support obligation under the child support guidelines had been reduced as a result of the self support reserve. The self support reserve is a calculation in the child support guidelines which ensures that the obligor has sufficient income to maintain a basic subsistence level. So in other words, after child support, the obligor has to have left an amount which is 105% of the US poverty guideline.
The child in this case was enrolled in Rider University, a small private university without input from the father, with whom she did not have a good relationship. Both parents blames the other for the poor relationship. The judge took some testimony from the parties on the issues, but there was not a formal hearing. The daughter preferred a smaller college as opposed to Rutgers, the State University. The father stated that he wanted his daughter to go to college. The child received minimal financial assistance from the college and had some limited assets of her own.
The trial court ordered the father to pay 27% of the net college expenses which was based on the percentages from the child support worksheet that had been used the year before in an application for unreimbursed medical expenses. This came to approximately $6860 per year.