Q: If my child is 18 and moved out of her moms home. Do i still have to pay her child support direct? Is she emancipated

A: Hello, and thank you for your question. When a child no longer needs child support can be a tricky question, indeed. First, let's talk about emancipation and what that means here in New Jersey. When child is no longer in need of his or her parent's financial support or input into their decision-making, they are considered "outside the sphere of influence" of their parents and, therefore, emancipated. There is no automatic age, except for the rule that child support must end at 23, no matter what. But, child support can continue through college and up to the age of 23.

As you can probably guess, this is really fact-specific for each family and it would be for yours, as well. Some further information that a family law attorney would need in order to answer you more completely would be: Is you daughter working full-time? Is she in school full-time? Is she living on her own and paying rent? How is she making her bills? Of course, do not give out too much personal information, here; rather, think about these issues in preparation for talking with an attorney.

Typically, parents to do not pay child support directly to the child, although there can be exceptions, of course. But, the theory is that the child support is to help the other parent with expenses including feeding the child, putting a roof over the child's head and providing other necessities such as clothing, heat and electricity.

As you can see, it can get a little complicated. Talk with a good family law attorney. We have offices throughout New Jersey and many other family lawyers offer free consults, as we do.

Wishing you the best of luck and hoping we can serve you if needed! Regards, Bari