Agree with Curtis and Hanan.
The confusion over this is a bit of a concern - the belief that it has changed the substantive law rather than being an administrative change. I hope the AOC is sending a memo to the judges that clarifies it. This law didn't cite nor overturn the presumption of emancipation at 18 unless a student or disabled or extraordinary circumstances. If the wording is unclear, the legislative history is 100% clear. It just says that the CP has to take action to continue a CS award when a child reaches 19, instead of a NCP having to take action. It's to clear "dead" cases and increase NJ's collection percentage -- our federal funding is based on the percentage of support collected, and this hurts us.
Out of curiousity, I OPRA'ed the DFD and will let you know how much we're talking about, but NJ is less than 2% from moving up two spaces (from 16th in the nation to 14th). Considering that we're either 2nd or 3rd (depending on source) wealthiest state, we should not be at #16 (or even 14). Hopefully we'll be getting rid of some counter-productive enforcement tools soon (ahem... like automatic DL suspensions without a contemporanous hearing) and, between those improvements and this, we'll move up to at least number 3 or 4 (and thus get a lot more federal incentive funds).
<x-sigsep></x-sigsep> - Dave
David Perry Davis, Esq.
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