The New York Family Court Act dictates that paternity proceedings can be initiated any time from the pregnancy of a mother until the child is 21 years of age. If a party makes a motion for DNA testing, the law provides that the court should order DNA or genetic marker…
The law in New York does contain reasons to deviate from the guidelines amount of child support. The Child Support Standards Act contains a formula, based on income, that dictates what the presumptive amount of child support should be in each particular case. The law also contains ten reasons that a…
This article is meant to provide some background about divorce and family law matters in the New York City borough of Queens, New York. As mentioned in prior blog entries, although the statutes are the same for everyone in New York State, there are different rules and procedures that change…
Can the New York courts exercise jurisdiction over a child custody case? In my practice as a New York City area and Long Island Child Custody attorney, this question comes when a child moves into New York from out of state or if a child moves from New York. The…
Separation agreements, pre-nuptial agreements, post-nuptial agreements, and stipulations of settlement may largely contain the same contents, and serve a lot of the same purposes, but vary in the timing that they are made. One purpose is invariably to define the respective rights of each marital partner in the event of…
The Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA) has been adopted, in some form, by every state in the United States. New York’s version of the law may be found in the New York Family Court Act Article 5-B. The Act became necessary since parents and children end up having connections…
Habeas Corpus is another Latin term, used in legal proceedings which means “You have the body”. This blog entry will refer to the use of the term in family law proceedings which, of course, has a different application than in criminal law proceedings which also make use of Writs of…
An order to pay child support or maintenance, that is part of a divorce judgment, can be enforced by filing a violation or contempt petition in the Supreme Court after the entry of a Judgment of Divorce. If exclusive jurisdiction was not reserved in the Supreme Court for dealing with…
Every location has different particularities that make handling family law and divorce cases somewhat different from County to County. The Domestic Relations Laws and Family Court Act is the same for everyone in New York, but different rules and procedures might apply from Judge to Judge, courtroom to courtroom, and…
Paternity is a legal declaration that someone is the father of a child in New York. The legal recognition of paternity is required under the law for the establishment of many rights and obligations such as for custody, parenting time, child support, and inheritance to name some of the more…