Legal Question in Family Law in New Jersey

Re: Fathers Custody Case

It sounds like your fiance is being a responsible parent in providing support for his child and remaining involved in the child's life. This is to be highly commended.

In order to establish which parent will have legal custody, either your fiance or his child's mother will need to initiate a court proceeding to determine physical and legal custody. Generally, the court will want both natural parents to remain actively involved in the child's life. The court may order joint legal and/or joint physical custody.

Even if one parent or the other is given primary physical and/or primary legal custody, involvement of the non-custodial parent is crucial to the child's development, and the non-custodial parent should ask for liberal visitation privileges.

In terms of your own involvement, you sound like a loving, caring adult who is concerned about your fiance's child and is actively participating in the child's care. Therefore, I imagine the judge would want you to be available for any court proceedings, which would allow the judge to better evaluate your role in the child's life.

On the other hand, if you avoid participating in the court proceedings, the judge could interpret this as a danger sign or "red flag", which would not help your fiancee.

As you are not the child's natural parent; the child has a natural mother who is actively involved in his life; it is very unlikely that you [as opposed to your fiancee] would be awarded custody. This does not mean the judge will not appreciate your involvement in the role of "step parent."

Please remember that all other things aside, the role of the judge in a custody determination is to act in the "best interests of the child." Regardless of who is awarded custody, both parents will be deeply involved in the child's life, as will you, in the "step parent" role.

I do not see how your new expected child will negatively affect the custody case, although it may have an effect on the computation of your fiance's child support obligation.

In any event, this situation is complex enough that you and/or your fiance would be well-advised to have a detailed consultation with an attorney as soon as possible, to discuss his and your rights, responsibilities, and options.

If you wish to contact me regarding the possibility of retaining my services, I can be reached at: [email protected] or [email protected].