You may have only had a limited time to collect alimony payments from your former spouse. However, you may still feel financially secure knowing that your former spouse is still expected to contribute monthly child support payments for your minor child. But similarly, these payments cannot and should not last forever. With that being said, please read on to discover the cutoff date for when child support is supposed to end and how a seasoned Bergen County child support attorney at McNerney & McAuliffe can help your child’s basic needs and wants be met.
When is child support supposed to end in New Jersey?
In short, New Jersey family law establishes that monthly child support payments are supposed to end when a child reaches the age of 19. With this, the original court order may indicate that these payments should automatically stop on the child’s 19th birthday. In other words, your former spouse, or the noncustodial parent of your child, does not have to retrieve another court order to stop payments from this day forward.
When is a child support order shortened or extended?
Now, you may rest easier knowing that your child’s 19th birthday is not a hard-stop deadline for when their receiving of support payments is supposed to end. That is, you may file a Request for Continuation of Support form with the New Jersey family court that handled your initial child support agreement. You may have valid grounds to pursue this petition if any of the following circumstances apply to your child:
- Your child has a physical/mental disability that requires extra medical/educational needs and thereby extra support.
- Your child has a desire to attend post-secondary education full-time and thereby requires extra child support.
- Your child is still a full-time high school student at the age of 19 and thereby requires extra child support.
It is worth mentioning that even if you are granted this extension, it cannot and will not last beyond your child’s 23rd birthday. This is unless you and your former spouse previously signed a parental agreement that indicates otherwise.
On the contrary, your former spouse also has the right to petition to terminate their child support obligation early. This is if any of the below scenarios are applicable to your child:
- Your child has legally emancipated themselves from you and their noncustodial parent before the age of 19.
- Your child has enlisted in the United States military before the age of 19.
- Your child has gotten legally married before the age of 19.
This blog is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to child support laws in the state of New Jersey. So for more information, please reach out to a competent Bergen County family law attorney from McNerney & McAuliffe today.
