Most people know what in hand delivery service of process of court papers looks like as they have seen process servers depicted in TV Shows and movies. Courts prefer actual hand delivery of the court papers as that is the surest way to know that someone has received the papers.…
Last week, I blogged about temporary or pendente lite maintenance. This blog will discuss temporary child support or pendente lite (while the case is pending) child support in New York cases. Pendente lite child support is the child support that is either agreed upon or awarded by a court while a…
There are various resources out there free on the internet which are useful in practicing New York family law. The New York statutes are one of the most important sources of information and are located in different places on the internet. As a Long Island Divorce Lawyer, family law attorney…
I have previously discussed modifications of judgments of divorce. As a reminder, a modification does not erase the order that was made, but if there is an adequate change of circumstances under the law, a party to the case can change the order going forward in certain circumstances. But, can…
When calculating income for child support or temporary maintenance (alimony), according to the New York Domestic Relations Law and the Family Court Act, the Court may, if the court believes it is appropriate, add in or “impute” income to people. The statutes outline some enumerated items to be considered for…
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…
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…
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…
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…