Family Law Content

Scope

This file explains what family law content appears on the NextGen UBE — the exam NCBE will administer nationally from July 2026 onward, which New Jersey will adopt with a first administration in July 2028 [S1][S5] — covering family law's status on the exam in two phases (skills-focused questions with provided legal resources through February 2028, then a full foundational concept starting July 2028), the official Family Law Subject Matter Outline's topic list, how family law is tested under the Blueprint, and the New Jersey angle [S1][S2][S3][S4][S5]. It does not cover New Jersey family law doctrine itself (statutes, case law, or practice procedure), which is beyond the NCBE exam's scope and is not tested; it covers only what NCBE's official materials say about family law content on the exam [S3][S5].

Legal Explanation

Family law's status on the NextGen UBE, July 2026 through February 2028 (NCBE/national). NCBE's About the NextGen UBE page states that from July 2026 through February 2028, "family law concepts will appear on every NextGen exam in a performance task and may also be included in integrated question sets," and that during this period family law concepts "will be tested with the provision of legal resources" [S1]. The NextGen Content Scope page and the Blueprint (prepared June 2, 2025, covering the July 2026–February 2027 administrations) say the same thing in structural terms: during this period family law, together with trusts and estates, "will appear in these skills-focused questions on every exam," meaning questions that test the Foundational Skills in the context of a doctrinal area the examinee is not expected to have a base of knowledge in, with the necessary legal resources (statutes, regulations, case law) provided [S2][S4]. During this phase, family law is not among the eight listed Foundational Concepts and Principles (business associations and relationships, civil procedure, constitutional law, contract law, criminal law and constitutional protections of accused persons, evidence, real property, torts) [S1][S2]. These are NCBE/national exam-design points; nothing in these pages is specific to New Jersey [S1][S2][S4].

Family law becomes a full Foundational Concept starting July 2028 (NCBE/national). NCBE states that "[s]tarting in July 2028, family law will be included in the foundational concepts and principles tested on the NextGen UBE and will be tested in the same manner as the other foundational concepts and principles" [S1]. The Content Scope page's "Starting in July 2028" section lists family law among the tested Foundational Concepts and Principles and links to a dedicated Family Law Scope PDF, with a footnote that family law "will be added to the list of foundational concepts and principles starting with the July 2028 NextGen UBE" [S2]. The Blueprint's "Starting July 2028" section likewise lists family law among the Foundational Concepts (business associations, civil procedure, constitutional law, contract law, criminal law, evidence, family law, real property, torts) [S4]. NCBE/national throughout [S1][S2][S4].

The Family Law Subject Matter Outline (NCBE/national). NCBE published a standalone outline, "NextGen Bar Exam Foundational Concepts and Principles: Family Law," bearing "First Administration: July 2028" and dated November 2024, which states that family law "will be included in the NextGen bar exam's Foundational Concepts and Principles beginning with the July 2028 exam administration," that from July 2026 through February 2028 "legal resources will be provided whenever family law concepts are tested," and that beginning in July 2028 family law "will be tested following the guidelines below" [S3]. The outline organizes family law into five main sections: (I) Marriage requirements and limitations; (II) Separation and dissolution/divorce; (III) Determination of parentage and the rights of parents and nonparents; (IV) Termination of parental rights and guardianships; and (V) Adoption [S3]. Section I covers limitations on who may marry (including the prohibition of bigamy and awareness of jurisdictional variations in restrictions based on age and consanguinity), procedural requirements (marriage license, residency, authority to perform the ceremony), state-of-mind requirements (knowingly and voluntarily entering a marriage), common-law marriage and the putative-spouse doctrine, void and voidable marriages, and interstate recognition of marriages [S3]. Section II covers grounds for separation and dissolution/divorce (including the difference between fault-based and no-fault dissolution, jurisdictional variations in the relevance of fault, and the potential effect of interpersonal violence on grounds in jurisdictions that retain fault consideration), jurisdiction over dissolution and related orders (including the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act, Uniform Interstate Family Support Act [2008], Indian Child Welfare Act, and Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act [1997], and the concept of divisible divorces), preliminary and interlocutory orders or agreements, premarital/marital/separation/dissolution agreements, division of property (community or marital versus separate or nonmarital property, mutation/transmutation, the hotchpot approach, equitable versus equal distribution, division of debts), maintenance/alimony (permanent versus temporary, modifiable versus nonmodifiable), child custody (categorizations such as legal/physical/shared/joint custody and visitation/parenting time, the best-interests-of-the-child standard and its factors, the presumption of continuing contact with both parents), child support (jurisdictional variations in mandatory guidelines, deviation justification requirements, extraordinary expenses, emancipation), modification of decrees (changed-circumstances standards for maintenance, support, and custody, including relocation), and enforcement of decrees (contempt, full faith and credit, grounds for attacking final orders) [S3]. Section III covers establishment of parentage (married, unmarried, and nonbiological parents; voluntary acknowledgment; functional/equitable parenting; the possibility of more than two parents; assisted reproductive technology), parental rights and obligations of married and unmarried parents, and custodial disputes between parents and third parties (e.g., grandparents) [S3]. Section IV covers termination of parental rights (jurisdiction, voluntary termination and its consent requirement, involuntary termination and the presumption of parental fitness) and legal guardianship [S3]. Section V covers adoption, including jurisdictional variations in procedures and grounds, adoptive parent qualifications, home studies, older children's consent, amended or new birth certificates, post-adoption access to information, and Indian Child Welfare Act jurisdiction over adoption proceedings [S3].

Two design features of the outline (NCBE/national). First, the outline distinguishes starred from unstarred topics: "Topics followed by a star symbol require an examinee to rely solely on recalled knowledge and understanding of the topic; they will be tested without provision of legal resources," while unstarred topics "may be tested with or without provision of legal resources," in which case the examinee is expected to recognize that the topic is at issue in the fact scenario [S3]. The outline's own text does not reproduce the star symbols in a machine-readable way [S3], so this file does not enumerate which specific topics carry the star. Second, the outline states that "[w]here the applicable law is noted in this outline, that law is controlling" and that "[i]n all other cases, if specific statutory rights and remedies are tested, the applicable legal resources will be provided" [S3]. The outline also notes that "[i]f a particular topic's scope is described in this outline, that does not indicate greater importance or testing frequency of the topic" [S3]. Note also that the outline contains no standalone domestic-violence topic: interpersonal violence and protective orders appear only as factors within specific topics (grounds for dissolution in fault jurisdictions, factors in property division, and best-interests-of-the-child factors), and the exam content is defined by the outline's five sections above [S3].

How family law is tested (NCBE/national). Under the Blueprint, the NextGen UBE is administered over one and a half days — two three-hour sessions on day one and one three-hour session on day two — and contains standalone multiple-choice questions (49% of the total exam score), integrated question sets (21%), and performance tasks (30%), with one performance task per section and three total [S4][S1]. Official NextGen UBE scores are reported as a single number on a scale from 500 to 750, with each jurisdiction establishing its own passing score within that range [S1]. Family law's testing channel through February 2028 is the performance task on every exam, with possible integrated question set appearances, always with legal resources provided [S1][S2][S4]. Starting July 2028, family law is tested like the other Foundational Concepts — through the full mix of question types, per the Blueprint's structure [S1][S4]. NCBE's released sample standard performance task, "In re Johnston," is a will contest, not a family law matter, so it illustrates the closed-universe performance task format rather than family law content; no released sample question whose subject matter is family law was located on NCBE's sample pages as of 2026-08-20 [S6].

New Jersey context (NJ-specific). New Jersey adopted the NextGen UBE by Supreme Court notice dated November 17, 2025, with the first New Jersey administration in July 2028; New Jersey will continue to administer the legacy UBE through the February 2028 administration [S5]. Because New Jersey's first NextGen administration (July 2028) coincides with the date family law becomes a full Foundational Concept, New Jersey candidates will face family law as a full foundational concept on their first NextGen exam — the product of combining the NJ notice with NCBE's stated timeline [S5][S1][S4]. NJ-specific family law doctrine — New Jersey statutes, child support guidelines, equitable distribution case law, or custody standards — is not tested on the NCBE exam, whose family law content is defined by the national outline and, where specific law is needed, provided as legal resources; the NJ notice announces no NJ-specific family law component [S3][S2][S5]. Candidates preparing for the NJ bar should therefore study family law as a national subject per the NCBE outline, not New Jersey doctrine [S3].

Currency note. NextGen family law content and logistics are still evolving. Every claim in this file was checked against the cited NCBE and New Jersey Courts pages on August 20, 2026, and reflects those pages as of that date [S1][S2][S3][S4][S5][S6].

ELI-10: Explain It Like I'm 10

[HYPOTHETICAL — NOT A REAL CASE] Suppose your two neighbors, Alex and Riley, get married, and years later they decide to split up. They have a house, a car, a dog, a savings jar, and two kids. A family-law lawyer would have to answer a whole list of questions. First: was the marriage even valid — did they get a license, were they old enough, and did they both really mean it? Then: what are the legal reasons for the divorce — in some places just "we don't get along" is enough, and in others you need to show the other person did something wrong? Then the hard part: who gets the house and the savings jar, and does it matter whether Alex brought the car into the marriage or they bought it together? Then the kids: where do they live during the week, which parent makes school and doctor decisions, and how much money does each parent chip in for food, clothes, and soccer practice — and what happens if Riley loses their job and can't pay as much? Then the what-ifs: what if one parent wants to move to another state with the kids, or what if one parent stops following the rules — can the other go to court to enforce them? And what if a grandparent wants the kids to live with them instead? Each of those questions is a section in NCBE's family law outline — marriage rules, divorce grounds, splitting property, custody, child support, changing orders, and even grandparents' rights [S3].

Translating back to the real rule: on the NextGen UBE, NCBE tests family law as one subject with a published outline, and it expects candidates to know the framework — that marriage has requirements, that divorce has grounds, that property gets categorized and divided, that custody turns on the child's best interests, that child support follows guidelines — not to memorize any one state's family code [S3]. From July 2026 through February 2028, family law shows up in a performance task on every exam with the needed legal resources handed to you [S1][S4]; starting July 2028, it becomes a full foundational concept tested like contracts or torts [S1][S4]. And for New Jersey specifically: NJ candidates first sit for the NextGen UBE in July 2028, so their very first NextGen exam is one where family law is a full foundational concept [S5][S1][S4]. The stories Alex and Riley would tell their lawyer are the same stories NCBE drafts exam questions around — that is what "family law content" means on this exam [S3].

Real Case Reference (if applicable)

No published judicial decision addresses what family law content appears on the NextGen UBE — the exam's content is defined by NCBE's exam specifications, not by litigated doctrine. The governing authority for this topic is therefore NCBE's own materials: the Family Law Subject Matter Outline, which defines the five tested sections and the legal-resources rules [S3]; the Content Scope page, which fixes family law's two-phase status [S2]; the NextGen UBE Blueprint, which fixes the question-type mix and the every-exam performance task [S4]; and the About the NextGen UBE page [S1]. For New Jersey, the governing action is the Supreme Court's November 17, 2025 notice adopting the NextGen UBE with a first administration in July 2028 [S5]. The uniform acts the outline names (Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act, Uniform Interstate Family Support Act [2008], Indian Child Welfare Act, Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act [1997]) are real federal statutes and uniform laws that the outline says candidates should be aware of as jurisdictional concepts; they are cited here only as the outline names them, not as adjudicated holdings [S3]. Note that the case law inside NCBE's released sample materials is fictional [S6]: the "In re Johnston" sample performance task presents Thomas v. Anderson (Franklin Court of Appeal, 2007) and Ramirez v. Ramirez (Franklin Court of Appeal, 2020), both made-up "Franklin" jurisdiction decisions created for the sample [S6]. No real-case citation is offered for this topic because none exists; the governing rules are NCBE's published exam specifications [S1][S2][S3][S4].

Key Takeaways

• Family law is a NextGen UBE subject with a two-phase rollout: from July 2026 through February 2028, family law concepts appear on every exam in a performance task and may also appear in integrated question sets, always with legal resources provided; starting July 2028, family law becomes a full Foundational Concept tested like the others (NCBE/national) [S1][S2][S4].
• NCBE's standalone Family Law Subject Matter Outline (November 2024, first administration July 2028) defines the tested content in five sections: marriage requirements and limitations; separation and dissolution/divorce; parentage and the rights of parents and nonparents; termination of parental rights and guardianships; and adoption (NCBE/national) [S3].
• The outline distinguishes starred topics (tested without legal resources — recalled knowledge only) from unstarred topics (may be tested with or without legal resources); the specific star assignments could not be machine-read from the PDF and are not enumerated here (NCBE/national) [S3].
• There is no standalone domestic-violence topic in the outline; interpersonal violence and protective orders appear as factors within grounds for dissolution (in fault jurisdictions), property division, and best-interests-of-the-child analysis (NCBE/national) [S3].
• The exam is one and a half days with three three-hour sections; standalone MCQs are 49% of the score, integrated question sets 21%, and performance tasks 30%, with one performance task per section; scores are reported on a 500–750 scale with jurisdiction-set passing scores (NCBE/national) [S4][S1].
• New Jersey-specific: first NextGen administration July 2028 by Supreme Court notice dated November 17, 2025, with the legacy UBE continuing through February 2028; because July 2028 is also when family law becomes a full foundational concept, NJ candidates face family law as a full foundational concept on their first NextGen exam; NJ-specific family law doctrine is not tested [S5][S1][S4].

Sources

• [S1] National Conference of Bar Examiners, "About the NextGen UBE," https://www.ncbex.org/exams/nextgen/about-nextgen (verified 2026-08-20).
• [S2] National Conference of Bar Examiners, "NextGen UBE Content Scope," https://www.ncbex.org/exams/nextgen/content-scope (verified 2026-08-20).
• [S3] National Conference of Bar Examiners, "NextGen Bar Exam Foundational Concepts and Principles: Family Law Subject Matter Outline (First Administration: July 2028)" (PDF, November 2024), https://www.ncbex.org/sites/default/files/2025-02/NextGen%20Family%20Law%20Subject%20Matter%20Outline%202028-2.pdf (verified 2026-08-20).
• [S4] National Conference of Bar Examiners, "NextGen UBE Blueprint, July 2026–February 2027" (PDF, prepared June 2, 2025), https://www.ncbex.org/sites/default/files/2025-07/NCBE-NextGen-UBE-Blueprint_5.pdf (verified 2026-08-20).
• [S5] New Jersey Courts, "Notice — Supreme Court Adopts the 'NextGen' Uniform Bar Examination — First Administration in July 2028" (Nov. 17, 2025), https://www.njcourts.gov/notices/notice-supreme-court-adopts-nextgen-uniform-bar-examination-first-administration-july-2028 (verified 2026-08-20).
• [S6] National Conference of Bar Examiners, "Sample NextGen UBE Standard Performance Task (In re Johnston)," https://www.ncbex.org/exams/nextgen/sample-questions/performance-task/sample-pt (verified 2026-08-20).

Not Legal Advice