The New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled that some petitions filed under the state grandparent visitation statute may warrant designation as complex litigation, complete with discovery and case management conferences.
Case management in grandparent visitation cases must strike a balance between a litigant’s need to meet his burden under statutes and case law and the potential burdens on the family’s privacy and finances, the justices said in Major v. Maguire. Where some grandparent visitation cases may dictate assignment to the complex track, others may be handled as summary actions, without discovery or case management, the court said.
