New Jersey Family Law Blog

Judge Sylvia Pressler dies aged 75

As reported by the New York Times, it was sad to note that Judge Sylvia Pressler, the former Presiding Judge for Administration of the New Jersey Appellate Division passed away last week, aged 75.  As a law student at Rutgers, I had the privilege to argue before her in the final of an appellate moot court competition. Her razor sharp intellect and questioning was an experience I shall never forget.

Judge Pressler was known for her encyclopaedic knowledge of New Jersey Law and her annotation of the New Jersey Court rules published by Gann was the bible of most practicing attorneys. 

During the course of her career she participated in several landmark decisions such as the opening of Little League to girls in New Jersey. New Jersey became the first state to bar sex discrimination in the sport as a result of her opinion in which she wrote:

"The institution of Little League is as American as the hot dog and apple pie." "There is no reason why that part of Americana should be withheld from girls."

Another ground breaking case was her 1995 decision In re adoption by HNR where she allowed a lesbian co-parent to adopt, thereby granting her legal recognition as a parent. This extension of legal rights to same-sex couples put New Jersey at the forefront of gay and lesbian rights.

Judge Pressler will be remembered as one of the leading jurists of the State of New Jersey and her legacy will live on in the countless opinions she authored in the appellate division.

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See the opportunities in life's setbacks

Steve Jobs in his 2005 Stanford Commencement Address talks about his adoption, love & loss and how he was devastated by being fired from Apple.  He describes how the rejection freed him to create Pixar Animation and ultimately led to the renaissance of Apple when he rejoined the company.

He urges graduates to trust in the future and see the opportunities in life's setbacks - advice that applies to anyone going through a divorce or major life change as you can see in the video below:

 

How to serve notice of an adoption hearing in China?

Image via WikipediaHere's an interesting legal question for those attorneys who read this blog. In the case of a stepparent adoption where the biological father whose parental rights would be terminated by the adoption lives in China, how would you service notice of the adoption hearing in order to comply with N.J.S.A. 9:3-45, when the child's mother in New Jersey has had no contact with him for several years and doesn't know where he currently lives?

N.J.S.A. 9:3-45(c)(1) requires notice of the hearing to be sent by regular and certified mail return receipt requested to the birth parent's last known address. The parent whose parental rights will be terminated by the adoption has the right to due process and the receipt of notice of the hearing and an opportunity to object. The statute goes on to specify that where personal service cannot be made, discrete inquiries should be made with government agencies in an effort to locate the missing parent. So back to the China question, why not just send mail to the last known address?

China and the United States are both parties to the Hague Convention on the service abroad of judicial and extrajudicial documents in civil or commercial matters, "Hague Convention". According to the State Department's informative judicial assistance web page, service by mail to China is prohibited, since China has objected to this method of service under the Hague Convention to which China and the U.S. are both parties. Since the U.S. and its courts are bound to honor treaty obligations, service by mail to China cannot be made.

However, there is a process under the Hague Convention where personal service of papers in China can take place via the Chinese Government (Chinese Central Authority). The State department's judicial assistance web page goes into the procedural details of how to do this. So my proposal in the stepparent adoption case is to obtain an Order from the New Jersey Judge permitting service via the Chinese Central Authority to the last known address instead of service by mail, with the Order also stating that this method of service of the hearing notice would satisfy the discrete inquiry requirements of N.J.S.A. 9:3-45(c)(3) in the event that personal service cannot be made.

An interesting legal question, that I am sure the Judge's law clerk will be researching before a decision is made. Given the fact that many people come to live and work in New Jersey from all over the world, it is no surprise that family legal issues often involve international law.