Posts tagged "children"

Family law matters related to domestic violence often include child custody disputes. A recent custody dispute involving 14-year-old actress Ariel Winter, has pit the actress's mother against the girl's adult sister. Amid allegations of domestic violence, Shanelle Gary, the adult sister of the 14-year-old Modern Family actress recently petitioned a court to be named Winter's legal guardian.

New Jersey couples going through a divorce often experience many emotions. Anger, regret, guilt and fear are all common and normal feelings individuals facing divorce often feel. When children are involved, emotions tend to be even more intense and a divorce can quickly turn into an all out battle. For the sake of the children, however, it's important that parents do their best to get along.

Although the median age for first marriages has increased for both men and women, the divorce rate has remained relatively constant in recent years, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This likely means that people are still entering into long-term relationships at a relatively early age, but are simply waiting to get married, with more or less the same effects on their future marriage.

This is just one of the many interesting trends that were uncovered by the CDC report, which includes information from nearly 23,000 Americans between the ages of 15 and 44 who were surveyed between 2006 and 2010. In addition, researchers compared the results from multiple earlier surveys dating back to the 1970s.

The holidays are over. Although the cluster of company holidays may be gone for a few months, you may be happy to finally be betting back into your old routines. Unfortunately, for many couples in New Jersey, that also means back to fighting with their spouses.

In fact, many people are now throwing in the towel and scheduling appointments with divorce lawyers. Now that the holiday cheer gone, you're ready to finally call it quits on your marriage as well. According to statistics, more people file for divorce in January than in any other season.

Courts in New Jersey and across the country are focusing on the welfare of young children after their parents' divorce. With that, an increasing number of divorcing couples are now required to take divorce education courses before being allowed to separate. The classes aim to provide parents with the knowledge and skills needed to develop optimal parenting plans and to make sure their child's development is not negatively impacted by the divorce.

To make such courses easier to schedule, some courts allow parents to participate in online divorce education programs. While researchers have begun to study the quality of traditional divorce education programs, the effectiveness of their online counterparts is largely unknown.

The answer to this question is not entirely clear. Like many family law matters, the answer will vary from state to state and between different jurisdictions. In some states, a teenager's preference regarding custody may be considered. A judge or a mediator in these states would interview the teenager and then make a determination as to how much, if any, weight should be given to a teenager's child custody preference.

However, "teen" is not a specific age. Some teens may actually be less mature than a younger child. What seems to matter more is the specific reason as to why a child prefers to be in the custody of one parent, as opposed to the other.

In our last post, we wrote about the new research that has emerged regarding the impact divorce has on children. According to new studies, 75 percent of children whose parents get divorced turn out just fine. In addition, many of those children become more resilient than their peers.

However, just because there is good news in the long run, that does not mean that divorce is easy on kids. According to a recent article in the Huffington Post, the first three years following a divorce are the most critical years for children. However, the fact that 75 percent of children weather divorce just fine also means that 25 percent of children throughout Old Bridge will struggle - perhaps significantly - with the divorce.

Thankfully, there are suggestions regarding the ways parents can most effectively help their children navigate the first three years after divorce.