Q: If a parent voluntarily tells court to end cs payments in 2014..can she 3 years later get cs from court again?

A: Hello and thanks for posting your question. I'm so sorry to hear you have not seen your child for nearly three years. That must be extremely difficult. I'll try my best to give you some general advice because it is difficult to be more specific without more details from you. I do not want you to give too many details about your family on this public forum, so please feel free to reach out to schedule a consultation if you want more information.

You raise two issues: child support and parenting time. Actually, under the law in New Jersey, they are two completely separate issues, meaning that if a parent never pays support, that does not affect their rights to parenting time. To generally answer your question, yes, your child's other parent can go back to the court and ask for support. In fact, child support is actually your child's right, and not either parent's right and neither you, nor your ex is able to waive child support. I am assuming that the court was told you would pay support directly. Either way, she can go back and ask for the support to be enforced and paid through the courts, again.

With regard to parenting time, I would ask if you already have an order that lays out your parenting time schedule. If so, you should, by all means, go to court and ask that the judge enforce that order so you can get back to seeing your child. If there is no order in place, you have the right to file a request with the court asking that parenting time be established and that a good parenting time schedule be put in place. Please know that because you have not seen your child in almost three years, the court may start the parenting time off slowly.

Again, consider a consultation with a family law attorney. We have offices throughout the state, but many other attorneys offer free consultations as well. Hoping this was helpful to you. Regards, Bari