A.J. v. R.J. 461 N.J. Super. 173 (App. Div. 2019)
Oct 07, 2019OUTCOME: Now, court must apply a "best interests" as defined by the child custody statute standard to see if custodial parents may move throughout the state.
In a big victory for non-custodial parents, the Appellate Division held, for the first time, that a "best interests" standard is to be applied when a custodial parent wishes to move to a location withi ... n NJ but far away from the current home. This protects the rights of non-Custodial parents, such as our client, because the prior standard was so minimal that there were no such restrictions on intrastate movement - in our case, our client's ex-wife moved from Elizabeth to Mt. Holly without notifying our client. We then brought action to compel her to move back. Court ordered mother to move back to within 15 miles of Union County to enable our client to still exercise his previously-agreed upon parenting time; when she then refused to do so, we brought another Motion and the court ordered that custody be transferred to our client. Mother appealed that decision and the Appellate Division, for the first time, applied the "best interests" standard.