Alan Gubernat, Plaintiff-Respondent v. Karen E. Deremer, Defendant-Appellant

Summary

The Supreme Court of New Jersey reversed the Appellate Division and remanded, holding that the custodial parent’s choice of a child’s surname is presumptively in the child’s best interests and rebuttable, and that the trial court erred in changing the child’s surname to the father’s name without the father meeting his evidentiary burden.