When is a Child Emancipated?
Dole v. Dole
In New Jersey there is a presumption that a child is emancipated, and no longer entitled to child support upon reaching age 18. Most divorce agreements or judgments set forth specific circumstances under which that presumption may be rebutted. It is common to provide that a child who is continuing their education beyond the age of 18, for example, shall not be deemed to be emancipated.
In the recent Appellate division decision in Dole v. Dole the parties had agreed that the child would not be considered emancipated until she was 23 without providing that she ed in an educational program. The child was post 18, not enrolled in an educational program and not working.
The Appellate Division ruled that the father was required to continue paying child support until the child reached age 23 per the terms of the parties agreement.
The Court reasoned that it was against public policy for the parties to agree to emancipation age of less than 18, but were free to contract to a later age.
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2 Replies to “When is a Child Emancipated?”
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To declare that a child is an adult by virtue of reaching the age of majority, thereby gaining all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities of adult-hood, yet mandate that this adult continues to receive “child-support” firstly defies logic, secondly is unfairly burdensome to the payor who must make provisions for retirement, and thirdly encourages an entitlement culture among young adults akin to a “welfare mentality”…sensible states such as Pennsylvania is getting it right…if I knew what I know now, I would have never, ever had a child in New Jersey!…I could be paying child support for my adult son well into his thirties!!! This is too much discretion for the NJ courts/judges.
How is it that parents who live with their children are not formally obligated to pay for college, but in a divorce they are? With the exception of disabled children, when a child turns 18 and is a high school graduate they should be emancipated. It is unfair to force parents to send a child to college whether they are divorced or not. I feel that a parent should help their children if they can, but should not be forced to. It is especially unfair to make fathers contribute to college when in most cases they make more money and are therefore forced to pay a higher share. Fathers in our country are already told they have no real rights when it comes to their children when they are divorced from their wives. Most often, by default, the wives have residential custody and are therefore granted the right to make all decisions and merely enforce the fathers. The majority of these women could not raise these children without a large amount of child support so why are they the ones being give the majority of custody and rights to decision making? If custody is determined with “best interests of the child” in mind then why isn’t it being granted to the parent who can financially support the child without assistance? Is it because most often times it is the father in that situation? Why have we forgotten about the fathers? Why have we forgotten about the essential role they play? I bet alot of mothers would be shocked by the statistics that prove they are harming their children by being given this unfair advantage over the children’s father. Women today are so naive and arrogant when it comes to parenting children. They are to focused on fighting to be treated fairly; fighting to end discrimination. Yet they ignore the fact that they are the ones discriminating. Our country needs to recognize men especially fathers. There are no kids without them. The default judgment needs to be equal parenting time, equal responsibilty, equal rights to the children. If it is supposed to be “Best Interest of the Child” then let’s make it that way.