Can my teenaged child choose where she wants to live

In follow-up to my 1/22/13 Post:

The appellate division released another opinion on January 23, 2012, again reiterating the necessity of a plenary hearing.  In M.I. v. B.I., the trial court conducted an in camera interview of the parties’ fifteen (15) year old daughter, who the court found to be “very sophisticated” and who expressed a desire to live with her father, and indicated her concerns for her mother’s parenting style. The parties have two children. 

The trial court denied the father’s application for a transfer of custody, without holding a plenary hearing. The trial court expressed concerns about splitting up the two children.

The Appellate Division held, that the “views of Amy, then age fifteen, were entitled to significant, albeit not controlling, weight.” The Appellate Division was satisfied that the father had made a prima facie case of changed circumstances, “specifically the preferences of a “very sophisticated” fifteen-year-old girl who expressed a preference for living with one parent and concerns about the parenting style of her then parent of primary residence.” Since the Appellate Division did not find the record to contain sufficient factual support for the judge’s denial of the father’s application, the panel remanded the matter for further consideration, and a plenary if the issues remain contested.