How to emancipate a child in New Jersey

Contrary to what many people think (but they will eventually find out) child support does not automatically end in New Jersey. In fact, unless a judge signs an emancipation order, child support will continue forever. Thus, if you want to end your child support obligation, you will have to file a motion for emancipation. If successful, you will receive a court order that terminates your child support. The best way to file a motion to emancipate a child in New Jersey is to hire an experienced family court lawyer. This is because your lawyer will handle everything for you. You will not have to figure out how to file the motion. Just follow the lawyer’s instructions.

In general, the process is as follows. A notice of motion, a certification and a proposed order must be filed for all FM cases (post-divorce cases). If you were never married to the other parent, you have an FD case and you will have to use the FD motion packet. You are fully responsible for crafting your arguments using a combination of facts and law. Again, this is difficult to do if you are not an attorney so you should let your attorney handle this for you. The other side will then file a response (although with an FD case, they may not). If a response is filed, you can then reply to that. You will then have a court appearance where you can argue your emancipation case in front of the judge. The judge will then issue an order either granting or denying your motion.

That is the basic process on how to emancipate a child in New Jersey. Before you do anything, call our team of tough, smart NJ child support lawyers at 1-855-9-JEFLAW to discuss your case for free.