Rule 5:9-1. Venue

An action by an approved agency for the termination of parental rights to a child shall be brought and venue shall be laid in the county in which the plaintiff has its principal office in New Jersey, except that if a parent of the child was granted a divorce, dissolution of a civil union or termination of a domestic partnership from the other parent by a judgment of the Superior Court or if there has been a prior proceeding or order in the Superior Court affecting the custody of the child and such court shall not previously have awarded custody of the child to an approved agency, the action shall be instituted in the Superior Court and the venue shall be laid in the same county in which the venue in such divorce, dissolution, or termination action was laid.