Parental alienation cases are unfortunately common in the frum community.
They are heart breaking, both because of the damage to the children and the fact that the alienated parent is often robbed of large parts of the children’s childhood. Parents who lose time with their children or are precluded from events due to alienation, never get that time or experience back.
Courts are often slow to take action, and Bais Din is often slower - if at all.
In an extremely positive development, a powerful new ruling from the New Jersey Appellate Division is sending shockwaves through the Family Court system — especially in Ocean County. In a strongly worded decision issued Friday, the appeals court overturned an Ocean County Family Part judge who had effectively cut off a father’s contact with his child for years unless he could afford expensive reunification therapy.
The case, captioned only by initials as C.P.D. v. J.L., involved a father whose parenting time had been suspended after a prior drug-related arrest. According to the ruling, the father later completed substance abuse treatment, maintained sobriety, passed repeated drug tests, and sought to rebuild a relationship with his son.
But the Family Part judge in Ocean County ordered reunification therapy with a therapist charging massive retainers and then blocked even supervised visitation or phone contact after the father could no longer afford the costs. The father reportedly spent over $12,000 attempting to comply.
The Appellate Division was clearly disturbed by what occurred.
In an emphatic rebuke, the appeals court ruled that parental visitation rights “cannot be predicated upon the payment of the reunification therapy costs” and warned that denying contact based on a parent’s financial means violates longstanding New Jersey law favoring frequent and continuing contact between children and both parents.
The appellate panel further stressed that New Jersey courts must protect against parental alienation, writing that “the lack of contact between a parent and child is a risk unto itself and promotes parental alienation.”
Perhaps most damaging to the Family Part ruling, the Appellate Division found the Ocean County judge failed to conduct the legally required “best interests of the child” analysis before denying visitation and improperly delegated authority over parenting time to a third-party therapist.
The appeals court noted that even incarcerated parents, parents accused of abuse, and parents involved in serious DYFCS cases are frequently still afforded supervised visitation in New Jersey courts.
The panel also highlighted an especially troubling fact: according to the opinion, the custodial parent allegedly admitted her “true goal” of all the supervised evaluations and reunification therapy was to terminate the father’s parental rights and have her fiancé adopt the child.
In one of the most striking portions of the opinion, the Appellate Division warned:
> “Any delay in further contact serves to further alienate defendant from his son.”
The court ultimately reversed the Family Part order and remanded the matter back to Ocean County — but with an extraordinary directive showing the urgency the appellate judges placed on reunification.
The Family Part judge was ordered to conduct a hearing within just thirty days to consider implementing supervised visitation and phone contact immediately while the broader proceedings continue.
The ruling is likely to become a major talking point in future New Jersey custody and visitation disputes involving parental alienation, reunification therapy, and the constitutional rights of parents.
The Appellate Division’s ruling makes clear that parental alienation is heart breaking child abuse, both because of the damage to the children and the fact that the alienated parent is often robbed of large parts of the children’s childhood. Parents who lose time with their children or are precluded from events due to alienation, never get that time or experience back.
As previously reported here on FAA News, the Court has even gone so far as to put an end to a case of mom's parental alienation by giving dad sole legal and residential custody and limiting mom to alternate weekends. As previously reported here on FAA News, the Appellate Division has further given a huge N-O to parties in a deteriorating relationship seek restraining orders as an attempt to alienate parents from their children, even when none of the alleged acts of domestic violence involved the children.
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