Posted on 08/02/2006 9:58:54 AM PDT by Coleus
After putting his estranged daughter through four years of college, Arthur Alfaro thought he was finished financially supporting her. But when 22-year-old Lauren Alfaro was accepted into Seton Hall University's graduate program, Superior Court Judge Thomas Zampino told Arthur Alfaro he wasn't off the hook yet.
Though he'd already paid more than $125,000 for her undergraduate studies, Zampino ordered Arthur Alfaro to pay another $15,000 for Lauren Alfaro's graduate work. The judge did not lay out his legal reasons or cite legal precedent in the order. The decision, which was handed down on July 21, shocked Arthur Alfaro and his attorney David Wildstein, who says it is highly unusual for a judge to compel a divorced parent to pay for graduate school.
With many married couples requiring their children to fund their own graduate studies, Wildstein said the ruling unfairly holds divorced parents to a higher level of responsibility. "That is the constitutional question: Are you treating divorced parents differently than you are parents in intact marriages?" said Wildstein, who chairs Wilentz, Goldman and Spitzer's Family Law Team. "When does a parent's obligation end?"
But John Paone, another seasoned divorce lawyer based in Woodbridge, said that in New Jersey the answer varies depending on circumstances. While a judge is unlikely to order a parent of modest means to foot a graduate school bill, Paone said educated parents with substantial incomes have been required to contribute. "If somebody's an ironworker's kid and wants to go to law school, it usually doesn't rise to the level of the parent having to make a contribution. But in the right case, yes, you will see it," said Paone, a past chair of the New Jersey State Bar Association's Family Law Section.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
I know someone whose daughter partied and took 6 yrs. to graduate from college with a BA and daddy had to pay it all, regardless.
...and daddy had to pay it all, regardless.
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This is a sick, liberal byproduct of our court system. It is not only unfair, but it is getting worse. A woman decides to throw her husband out for another man, for instance, then she get alimony and the kids get college tuition...and in some cases, even after she remarries. It is beyond sick.
She's past 21. This is an absurd decision.
So much for equal treatment under the law. Don't we have an Amendment that prohibits involuntary servitude?
Does mom have to pay anything?
A PA state decision a number of years ago specifically said that as college is not a requirement for parents in general, it certainly is not for non-custodial parents. Other states have adopted this, FWIU.
This is an abuse of the Court. The daughter is an adult. Why should any parent - divored or not - be forced into paying for another adult's education?
Great, just what America needs another PSYCH major. She'll cost the taxpayers even more than she cost her daddy.
Another reason no sane man should marry or reproduce.
New York and NJ are socialist states.
How can a judge order continued support of a non-disabled non-minor? There's utterly no legal basis for this decision.
He is wealthy male who has not only married but reproduced. I.E. a second if not third class citizen.
There are many divorced dads who have no voice in the political system. It is a large voice that has not been tapped by either political party. My opinion, illegal immigration, job outsourcing to overseas, and rights of divorced fathers is the big three issue that will bring many nonvoting/unregistered male voters out of the woodwork and across party/racial lines. The first candidate/political party willing to exploit this issue will break the close division amongst past voters on election day.
It's time to shout it from the mountaintops:
KIDS ARE AN EXPENSE...NOT AN INVESTMENT!!!!
For the record, I love my kids. I feel better now...thanks for letting me rant.
""If somebody's an ironworker's kid and wants to go to law school, it usually doesn't rise to the level of the parent having to make a contribution. But in the right case, yes, you will see it," said Paone, a past chair of the New Jersey State Bar Association's Family Law Section."
And that, is the definition of 'discrimination'.
You're expected to keep the family in the lifestyle they were accumusted to prior to the divorce. In other words, if you had always said that your kids would go to college then it's still your responsibility to make certain it happens. Although grad school is another issue altogether. I've always told my kids that I would help them with college but they had to make it on there own with regards to a post-graduate education.
Not per the judge! Get ready to pay for the "required" post education.
Because there are none!!!!!!
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