Say your spouse has children from a previous marriage, which you may have raised and taken care of as if they were your own throughout your marriage. Well, in the event of your unfortunate divorce, you may not want to lose the bond you have built with these children in their pivotal, developmental years. But at the same time, you may wonder whether you have any rights, particularly physical and legal custody rights, over your stepchildren in the first place. If this is your biggest concern upon entering your litigated divorce proceedings, then please read on to discover the legal rights of a stepparent and how a seasoned Bergen County child custody attorney at McNerney & McAuliffe can work to limit or expand these rights based on a child’s best interest.
What are the legal rights of a stepparent in New Jersey?
For all intents and purposes, let’s say that you never legally adopted your stepchildren while you were married to one of the biological parents. Well, in this case, we regret to inform you that it is rather unlikely that you will be granted any physical or legal custody rights over them once your divorce is finalized. This means that you may no longer live in the same house as them, and you may no longer have any decision-making power over their education, healthcare, religion, and other important aspects of their life.
At the very least, you may make your best efforts to fight for visitation rights over your stepchildren. With this, though, you must demonstrate to the New Jersey family court that your stepchildren will suffer emotionally and psychologically if your bond is broken by no longer being in each other’s lives. This is otherwise commonly known as claiming your “psychological parent status.” Overall, you must argue that scheduled, regular visits with your stepchildren will serve their best interests.
Under what circumstances can a stepparent request rights over a child?
To reiterate, a child’s best interest is the overarching concept the New Jersey family court strives to meet when making a custody arrangement. And while it is a rare possibility, you can petition that both your stepchildren’s biological parents are unfit to physically and legally care for them. In turn, you may argue that it is in your stepchildren’s best interests if you retain such custody rights over them.
In another rare case, one of your stepchildren’s biological parents may voluntarily surrender their legal rights over them. Here, you should quickly swoop in and petition to take on these legal rights instead. In either of these possible scenarios, though, your best bet at being granted these rights may be to go through the formal process of adopting your stepchildren first.
In conclusion, at this time, what matters most is that you retain strong legal representation to get you through this critical case. Please contact a competent Bergen County family law attorney from McNerney & McAuliffe today.
