Can a child (over 18) legally obtain court transcripts of a parents divorce proceedings in NJ

While most people will say that they "fought" for specific things as part of a divorce, it does not mean that their matter proceeded to trial & resulted in the court rendering a decision on the issues presented. So, your starting point is whether there is a settlement agreement. If there is a settlement agreement, then the matter was settled and presumably, the court never made rulings of the issues contained in the agreement. I can tell you that over the course of a 34 year career handling divorce & family law matters exclusively, I have had clients want specific things as part of a divorce, which the other side would not agree to or which realistically were not practical and we  had to have "heart to heart" discussions on whether it made dollars and sense to pursue.  Its not healthy for your father to repeatedly tell you that he fought for a particular parenting time plan as part of the divorce and that your mother opposed it. I have no idea if that is true or not and I have no idea whether your mother had a legitimate reason to oppose it ( if she did oppose it). The best advice I can give your dad and you is that he stop the discussion on the divorce and focus his energies on how he can be involved more in your life today. Tell your dad to stop it since all he is really doing is disparaging your mother. If he wants a better relationship with you, tell him to let go of the anger and focus on being in your life constructively today and for tomorrow. Telling him that you love him and want him to be in your life more today, will also help him move forward with his life as well. If he refuses and continued to bash your mom, then it should also become clear that he cannot let go of the past and wants to blame her for his unhappiness and there is nothing in the court's file that will change that setting. And, lastly, if their matter was tried to conclusion before the court and you really wanted to get the transcripts, you can fill out the form from the family part, identifying the docket number, dates of testimony, etc and the transcriber will then let you know if they still have the tapes available for transcription and what the cost will be per transcript. Presume that each transcript ( if full day) will cost you about 1,000.00 per day of testimony with the payment made up front.  

To begin with, while most people will say that they "fought" for specific things as part of a divorce, it does not mean that their matter proceeded to trial and resulted in the court rendering a decision on the issues presented. So, your starting point is whether there is a settlement agreement. If there is a settlement agreement, then the matter was settled and presumably, the court never made rulings of the issues contained in the agreement. It is possible that the court made "interim" rulings during the divorce matter and thereafter for settlement purposes, your father may have abandoned or modified his position to bring the matter to a close. I can tell you that over the course of a 34 year career handling divorce & family law matters exclusively, I have had clients want specific things as part of a divorce, which the other side would not agree to or which realistically were not practical and we have had to have "heart to heart" discussions on whether it made dollars and sense to pursue. Its not healthy for your father to repeatedly tell you that he fought for a particular parenting time plan as part of the divorce and that your mother opposed it. I have no idea if that is true or not and I have no idea whether your mother had a legitimate reason to oppose it ( if she did oppose it). The best advice I can give your dad and you is that he stop the discussion on the divorce and focus his energies on how he can be involved more in your life today. Tell your dad to stop it since all he is really doing is disparaging your mother. If he wants a better relationship with you, tell him to let go of the anger and focus on being in your life constructively today and for tomorrow. Telling him that you love him and want him to be in your life more today, will also help him move forward with his life as well. If he refuses and continued to bash your mom, then it should also become clear that he cannot let go of the past and wants to blame her for his unhappiness and there is nothing in the court's file that will change that setting. And, lastly, if their matter was tried to conclusion before the court and you really wanted to get the transcripts, you can fill out the form from the family part, identifying the docket number, dates of testimony, etc and the transcriber will then let you know if they still have the tapes available for transcription and what the cost will be per transcript. Presume that each transcript ( if full day) will cost you about 1,000.00 per day of testimony with the payment made up front.