Five Ways to Protect Your Parental Rights in a Divorce

New Jersey divorces involving children tend to be particularly emotionally charged and legally rather complex undertakings. Unfortunately, with alarming regularity a parent involved in a divorce will make some type of misstep that ends up negatively impacting his or her parental rights. There are five key tactics to utilize as a means to protect your vital parental rights during a New Jersey marriage dissolution case:

• Retain a New Jersey divorce attorney
• Make a reasonable effort to maintain communication with the other parent
• Abide by rulings of the court
• Do not use your child as a pawn
• Strive to coparent

In the overall scheme of things, there is nothing more important when it comes to protecting your parental rights in a divorce than retaining the services of an experienced New Jersey marriage dissolution lawyer. A committed, skilled divorce attorney understands the ins and outs of the law relating to your rights as a parent during and after marriage dissolution proceedings.

You best protect all of your rights during divorce proceedings by being proactive in retaining the services of a capable attorney. You should schedule an initial consultation with a reputable divorce attorney as soon as you or your spouse make the decision to pursue a marriage dissolution case.

Another tactic to employ to protect your rights as a parent during a divorce (and after the proceedings and into the future) is to do your best to maintain healthy communication with the other parent. A good deal of conflict occurs when parents lack reasonably appropriate communication during a divorce.

The hiring of a lawyer can actually work to improve communication between divorcing parents. In addition, there are other professionals who can be helpful to assist you in enhancing communication with the other parent as well as buttressing your rights as a parent during a divorce case.

While this may sound like common sense, a key way to protect your rights as a parent during a divorce is to be certain that you abide you court rulings. Time and again, individuals in New Jersey divorce cases fail to comply with orders of the court – and do so to their detriment.

For example, custodial parents have been known to prevent a noncustodial parent from exercising parenting time because the noncustodial parent has fallen behind in child support payments. This type of extra-judicial self help violates the existing orders of the court. This type of conduct can result in sanctions imposed by the court. Moreover, if this type of conduct continues, a court can elect to issue an order that changes custody of the child to the other parent. As was stated a moment ago, the consequences of failing to follow the orders of the court can be significant.

Sadly, in many divorce proceedings, children become pawns in the machinations between parties to a case. For example, a parent may use a child to glean information about what the other parent is doing. In other cases, a parent might bad mouth the other parent to the child.

If you elect to use your child as a pawn during the course of a New Jersey divorce case, you do run the risk of jeopardizing your rights as a parent. For example, a judge is likely to take a dim view of you using your child as a pawn. If that should happen, the court might make the decision to change custody or alter a parenting time arrangement.

Finally, a key tactic to employ to protect your parental rights during a divorce is to make a truly serious effort to coparent. Co Parenting is defined as separated or divorced parents that make a concerted effort to jointly parent their child or children. In other words, separated or divorce parents work in tandem to raise their children. They were as close as they could be to be partners in parenting their child or children.

Coparenting necessitates that parents be able to communicate reasonably well. The importance of communication was discussed in greater detail a moment ago. Co Parenting also requires parents to be respectful of one another. If you need representation in a family matter, call us at 201-845-7400.