Pro Se Appearances in Family Court

[Novice]

My question involves court procedures for the state of:

This is a question pertaining to NJ:

Sorry - I accidentally posted without my message body.

My question is pertaining to pro se appearance in Family Court (Divorce proceedings). Is a pro se litigant permitted to make court appearances by phone? How and what would be considered valid reasons for objecting to such an attempt? Or would the Court just deny this automatically?

[Mr. Knowitall]

You can inquire with the court clerk to attempt to determine the circumstances under which the judge overseeing your case might permit you to appear by phone. It's not unusual for child support hearings, although practices vary by state and county.

[Novice]

This is not in relation to my own case, but to a friend's.

Husband moved from NJ to FL after separation, presumably to avoid collection of court ordered pendente lite relief to wife. I'm told that husband is over $10k in arrears on pendente lite payments to wife. Husband and wife are both proceeding without counsel after failure reach settlement with ESP.

Husband is now asking to appear by phone for hearing before the Judge, claiming to be unemployed and that travel costs represent a hardship. Wife wants to object because of the pendente lite arrears, and because husband has not complied with other orders (discovery, etc.). I didn't think that a pro se litigant in divorce proceedings was allowed to appear by phone (for the ESP yes, but not for hearing before the Judge), but I wanted to try to get a more knowledgeable opinion for my friend.

Thanks