Yesterday, a litigious 18-year-old New Jersey Catholic school student faced off against her parents in court. Rachel Canning is suing her parents for financial support, after they allegedly kicked her out of the house because she wasn't following their rules. They claimed she left on her own accord, and the judge has backed their decision, asking, "What kind of parents would the Cannings be if they did not discipline her? The Cannings had the right to set up rules."

As with any disagreement between a teenager and parents, the details are heavily disputed. Here's how the Daily Record explains it:

The issue of how and why Canning left home is in dispute. Rachel has stated in court papers that her parents were abusive and neglectful, a claim they vehemently deny. Her parents contend their daughter in the months before her voluntary departure from home—her self-imposed emancipation from their sphere of influence—was drinking, staying out past curfew, skipped school, was foul-mouthed and disrespectful to her mother and refused to break up with a boyfriend they believe is a bad influence.

Rachel, who moved into the home of a friend, wants her parents to pay for her remaining Catholic school tuition (about $5,300), plus a deposit for college. And she wants her parents to pay her friend's father, who has footed about $13,000 in legal fees so far.

Rachel's lawyer Tanya Helfand accused the Cannings of being "abusive", by not allowing her to have a boyfriend during her senior year of high school and pushing her to get a basketball scholarship: "Normal, healthy people want to help their children. The Cannings simply don’t want to pay. They want to strip their daughter of her opportunities." Further, NBC New York notes other allegations:

Canning outlines a litany of alleged abuse that involved demeaning comments about her weight, as well as inappropriate encounters with her father. She says her mother called her "fat" and "porky" as she was growing up, and she developed an eating disorder her sophomore year of high school. By her junior year, she says she weighed 92 pounds and was no longer healthy enough to play basketball, which she says angered her father.

Canning alleges her father was "inappropriately affectionate" toward her for much of her life, and claims he fed her so much alcohol that she blacked out on occasion. Once, she alleges, he woke her up in the middle of the night to drink and play beer pong. Frequently, she says, he told her that he didn't view her as a daughter, but as "more than that."

The teen did not accuse her father of touching her unlawfully, and her parents showed "documents from the state’s Division of Child Protection, showing the parents had been investigated for — and cleared of — abuse allegations."

But her parents' lawyer Laurie Rush-Masuret argued that she emancipated herself, thereby forgoing any hope of her parents' financial support: "She voluntarily decided to leave because she didn’t like the rules they were imposing." The Cannings cited how she had been drinking and staying out during the week—the boyfriend brought her home at 3 a.m. Rachel also received a two-day suspension for skipping school with her boyfriend (she says it was to help him with his college applications). The couple's lawyer added, "I don’t know how a household can have teenagers without some reasonable rules. It’s devastating to my clients to have to go through this. They are willing for Rachel to come home. She can go home tonight” if she can follow their rules.

Sean Canning, a former police chief of Lincoln Park, told the Post, "I’m a liberal, liberal parent. I wish I could have grown up in my house. I was tougher on my cops at work than I’ve ever been at my home, that’s for sure."

Additionally, the Star-Ledger reports, Judge Bogaard cited "a vulgar voice mail left by Rachel for her mother. 'Have you ever seen a child show such gross disrespect for a parent?' he asked. 'Is there a point at which a parent can say they don’t have to pay for college?'"

Judge Bogaard scheduled another hearing for next month (the college deposit isn't due until May), declaring, "The child thumbs her nose at her parents, leaves the house and turns around asking, 'Now you have to pay me money every week.' This poses a public-policy issue." He also noted that if he signed the emergency order giving Rachel $600 a week, it "would represent essentially a new law or a new way of interpreting an existing law. A kid could move out and then sue for an XBox, an iPhone or a 60-inch television."

The teen spoke with her parents briefly; the Star-Ledger described them as "tense and sad." Rachel had apparently sent her parents a letter in October, "Hey guys, I want to apologize for my actions. I really need to realize there are consequences for the things that I do. I am trying to change. I do miss you guys. I am trying to turn over a new leaf."