Bill > A2299

Introduced Session

In New Jersey, at present, the preferred course of action in cases where a parent who has been ordered to pay child support, has been sentenced to a lengthy period of incarceration, is to defer any action on an application for modification of the order of child support. At the end of the incarceration, the court conducts a review of then-existing circumstances to determine the appropriate ruling on the motion. This bill directs that a money judgment or order of child support shall be suspended, by operation of law, for any period exceeding 90 consecutive days in which the obligor is incarcerated, unless enumerated conditions exist. The conditions are: (1) the person owing support has the means to pay support while incarcerated; or (2) the person owing support was incarcerated for an offense constituting domestic violence, as defined in subsection a. of section 3 of P.L.1991, c.261 (C.2C:25-19), against the obligee, or an offense involving the child who is the subject of the child support order or for an offense that could be enjoined by a protective order, or as a result of failure to comply with a court order to pay child support. The bill preserves the current status of the law in New Jersey concerning the resumption of the child support obligation. Moreover, the bill does not prohibit a person owing support from seeking a modification of the child support order The bill would further amend N.J.S.A.30:4-8.9 to direct the Department of Corrections to notify a defendant, during the intake process, that every money judgment or order for support of a child shall be suspended, by operation of law, for any period exceeding 90 consecutive days in which obligor is incarcerated unless a condition exists to warrant not imposing the suspension. The bill also provides for juveniles who are placed in detention to be notified that every money judgment or order for support of a child shall be suspended, by operation of law, for any period exceeding 90 consecutive days in which obligor is in detention unless a condition exists to warrant not imposing the suspension. This bill is based on a similar 2015 enactment in California.

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Annette Chaparro (D)*,  Angelica Jimenez (D)*,  Eliana Pintor Marin (D)*,  Shanique Speight (D), 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee (on 01/27/2020)