Central New Jersey Attorney Tabitha Y. Clark Set to Defend New Jersey's First Order Declaring Three People the Legal Parents of a Child
EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J., April 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- New Jersey attorney Tabitha Y. Clark is set to respond to The New Jersey Attorney General's motion to vacate the first Order in New Jersey granting three people equal parental rights over a minor and an Order that compels the Bureau of Vital Statistics to amend the child's birth certificate to include the names of all three parents.
The case, E.Q. v. E.C. & D.L., began in 2012 as a civil union dissolution action in Warren County when E.Q. sought to divorce her wife E.C. One child was born of the marriage to E.C. and was thought to have been conceived by artificial insemination. E.Q., the non-biological mother, later formally adopted the child. Biological father D.L. plead into the pending divorce as a third party plaintiff and proved that the child was conceived in an extra-marital affair with E.C. In March 2013, the parties entered into a consent order whereby they would each be the child's legal parent with equal rights and be afforded reasonable parenting time.
In July 2014, E.Q. filed a post judgment application to modify parenting time based on changed circumstances. In 2015, Clark reached out to the Attorney General (AG), counsel for the Bureau of Vital Statistics to effectuate the three-parent birth certificate and the AG responded with its present motion to vacate the select portions of the orders outlined above as having no legal basis under statute or case law. The State asserts that because the child was conceived during the marriage and then formally adopted by E.Q., D.L.'s parental rights were severed, leaving E.Q. and E.C. as the child's only legal parents.
"We wanted to decide for ourselves what our family looks like and how it is defined," says E.Q., "Ours is a story like many others across the nation whose family does not fit in the State's predetermined boxes. It's time for New Jersey to address our needs." This decision will impact many LGBT families across the state.
About Tabitha Y. Clark
Tabitha Y. Clark spent one year as an associate with the Rutgers Law Associates before opening The Law Offices of Tabitha Y. Clark in 2015. Her practice areas include matrimonial litigation, child custody, and employment and civil rights law. Ms. Clark also serves as Of Counsel to the Law Office of Hanan M. Isaacs, P.C. in Kingston, NJ.
She graduated from Rutgers School of Law and received her undergraduate degree in political science and Spanish language and literature from Temple University in 2010. For more information about Ms. Clark and her firm visit www.tclarklawoffices.com.
Tabitha Clark
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SOURCE The Law Offices of Tabitha Y. Clark
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