Domestic Violence in New Jersey Family Court
How domestic violence may factor into New Jersey custody and parenting time decisions.
Child Custody, Safety, and Domestic Violence in Canada
1. Custody and Parenting Basics in Canada
Canadian family law focuses on children’s best interests, not on “winning” or “losing” a case. Terms and processes can differ between provinces and territories, and between the Divorce Act (for married spouses) and local laws (for unmarried parents).
Key terms you may see
- Decision-making responsibility / custody: Who has legal authority to make major decisions about the child (for example, health care, education, religion, where the child lives).
- Parenting time / access: When and how the child spends time with each parent. This can be in person, virtual, supervised, or unsupervised.
- Contact: Time a child spends with an important person who is not a parent (for example, a grandparent), if ordered by a court.
- Primary residence: Where the child mainly lives, even if both parents have decision-making responsibility.
Common custody and parenting arrangements
- Sole decision-making responsibility: One parent makes major decisions. The other parent may still have parenting time.
- Joint or shared decision-making: Both parents share major decisions. Courts may be cautious about this where there is a history of abuse or high conflict.
- Shared or split parenting time: The child spends significant time with each parent, though not always 50/50.
- Supervised parenting time: Contact between the child and a parent happens in a supervised setting to increase safety.
The words used in your province or territory may be different (for example, “custody” and “access” or “parenting orders” and “contact orders”). The meaning is usually similar: how decisions are made for the child, and how time is shared.
2. “Best Interests of the Child” and Safety Themes
Courts across Canada must base custody and parenting decisions on what is in the child’s best interests. Each province and territory has its own list of factors, but some themes are common.
Safety and harm
- Any history of family violence, including patterns of control, threats, or harm to any family member.
- Risk that a parent might harm, threaten, or frighten the child or the other parent.
- Impact that exposure to abuse has had, or could have, on the child’s emotional and physical well-being.
- Whether parenting arrangements can be structured to reduce or manage risk (for example, supervised exchanges, specific communication rules).
Stability and routines
- The child’s need for stability in housing, schooling, health care, and community.
- The strength of the child’s relationships with each parent, siblings, and other important people.
- The child’s cultural, linguistic, and spiritual background, including Indigenous identity.
Parenting abilities and cooperation
- Each parent’s ability to meet the child’s daily needs (food, shelter, medical care, supervision).
- Each parent’s ability to support the child’s relationship with the other parent, where it is safe to do so.
- Whether the parents can communicate safely and make decisions without putting the child or the other parent at risk.
Respecting the child’s voice
- Depending on age and maturity, courts may consider the child’s views and preferences.
- The court will also consider whether a child’s stated wishes may have been influenced by fear or pressure.
“Best interests” does not mean both parents automatically get equal time. Where there is family violence, courts may put extra weight on safety, predictability, and reduced conflict.
3. How Domestic Violence Evidence Can Be Used in Custody Cases
Family courts can consider many types of information when there are safety concerns. Domestic and family violence can include physical, emotional, psychological, financial, sexual, and immigration-related abuse, as well as patterns of control.
Possible types of evidence
- Documents from systems (where they exist): police reports, occurrence reports, peace bonds or protection orders, bail conditions, probation orders.
- Court and agency records: child protection files, previous family court orders, criminal court documents.
- Health and support records: medical notes, counselling summaries, shelter support letters (if available and safe to use).
- Communication records: texts, emails, messages, call logs, social media posts that show threats, harassment, or controlling behaviour.
- Witness information: statements or possible testimony from people who observed incidents or patterns (neighbours, family, service providers, where appropriate).
How courts may look at DV evidence
- Whether the violence was a one-time event or a pattern over time.
- Whether the child directly witnessed or was exposed to the behaviour.
- Whether the abusive behaviour has continued after separation.
- Steps, if any, that the abusive parent has taken to address their behaviour (for example, programs, counselling), and whether these steps seem to be working.
- How the information affects risk today, not only what happened in the past.
Sharing details of abuse in a court process can be emotionally and practically difficult. It can be helpful to plan for privacy and digital safety, especially when handling messages or documents. You can find general tips at resources such as /digital-safety.html.
Some survivors choose to ask a legal clinic, duty counsel, or family law professional for help understanding how their documents may be used in court. This is personal and depends on safety, access to services, and immigration or privacy concerns.
4. Family Responsibility Office (FRO) and Custody
In Ontario, the Family Responsibility Office (FRO) enforces court-ordered or agreement-based child and spousal support. Other provinces and territories have similar maintenance enforcement programs with different names.
What FRO does
- Collects support payments from the payor and sends them to the recipient.
- Uses enforcement tools (for example, wage garnishment, driver’s licence suspension, federal payment intercepts) when support is not paid.
- Keeps a payment record, which may be used in later court processes.
How FRO activity can affect custody and parenting issues
- Non-payment of support does not automatically change custody or parenting time, but:
- Courts may consider long-term non-payment as one piece of information about a parent’s reliability or willingness to meet responsibilities.
- Payment records may be used to show whether support has been paid or not.
- Parenting time and support are legally separate:
- A parent is generally not allowed to withhold parenting time because support is unpaid.
- A parent generally cannot stop paying support because they are being denied parenting time.
- Safety at exchanges and communication:
- Using FRO can reduce direct money-related contact between parents, which may lower some conflict.
- Where there is a history of abuse, using an enforcement program can affect the abusive person’s behaviour. A safety plan for communications and exchanges can help.
If you are in a province or territory outside Ontario, a similar maintenance enforcement program may exist under a different name. Its enforcement actions can indirectly affect conflict levels, which may relate to parenting safety, but do not on their own decide custody.
Additional support options, including information on services across Canada, can be found through national resources listed at DV.Support.