Legal Question in Family Law in New Jersey

Re: I need an answer about retroactive on emancipation

"Mrsangel"--

The parties' obligations concerning payment of child support are generally governed by a court order and/or written agreement between the parties.

In order to properly answer your question, you would need to consult with an attorney who could then review the court order and/or child support agreement, if any. The attorney could also review other contents of the court file; other documents, such as correspondence; and would be in a better position to understand what was intended by the parties to the agreement.

Your question, if I understand it correctly, indicates that your daughter actually finished college in March '04; at which time child support was supposed to terminate. However, neither you nor your husband actually filed a motion with the court to terminate the child support order at that time, and the child support payments continued even though your child was finished with college.

As a result, your husband is now filing a motion for termination of child support. As part of that motion, he is asking that he be reimbursed for child support payments made after the child actually completed college.

If I understand this correctly, I do not think the issue will be decided by the judge based ONLY on the fact that the motion was not filed until September (whoever did or did not actually file the motion). The substantive issue is what the agreement was supposed to be, and what is fair. Child support is an "equitable" issue, and the court has great discretion to fashion a decision which it feels is the most fair.

However, if you think you are entitled to the payments including those made after your daughter graduated from college, you need to immediately consult with an attorney to advise you of your legal options.

If you are seeking a private attorney, I would be happy to discuss this with you further. Feel free to contact me at: [email protected] or [email protected].