When Child Support Obligees Can't Pay

A suit to force New Jersey to appoint lawyers for indigent parents before jailing them for skipped child support belongs in state court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has ruled. The plaintiffs had contended that Family Part judges in New Jersey violated their civil rights by failing to inform them of their right to counsel and to have counsel appointed for them based on their indigency, and that, because they remain in arrears on their child support obligations, there is a likelihood that they will again be deprived of these rights because they will be obligated to appear in future contempt hearings.