Child Support in New York

Child support is a payment made to the custodial parent for the financial support of their children. In order to obtain child support, the parties must first determine physical residential custody. Child support can be paid monthly, biweekly, or weekly. Basic child support is designed to cover food, clothing, shelter, and other basic expenses; it does not include unreimbursed medical expenses or the cost of childcare when a custodial parent is at school or work.

In many instances, the custodial parent depends on this financial assistance from the other parent and is not able to float the entirety of the family’s expenses unassisted. When a parent unilaterally decides to stop paying child support - whether it be for no reason, a good reason, or a malicious reason - this can have disastrous financial consequences for a custodial parent. Worse yet, it forces the custodial parent, who is already in financial distress due to nonpayment, to retain an attorney to fight for outstanding child support payments. This places a great strain on the custodial parent, who is not relieved of custody or support burdens placed upon them, even though the noncustodial parent has decided to disobey court orders.

Thankfully, when a parent is able to demonstrate that the other parent stopped paying child support willfully, they are able to seek payment of their attorney fees in addition to back child support payments which they are already owed. A willful violation means that the parent had the ability to pay or should have had the ability to pay but did not do so. In addition to back payments and attorney fees, a parent found in willful violation of a child support order may also be incarcerated for up to six months.

Domestic Relations Law 237(c)

DRL 237(c) provides:

In any action or proceeding for failure to obey any lawful order compelling payment of support or maintenance, or distributive award the court shall, upon a finding that such failure was willful, order respondent to pay counsel fees to the attorney representing the petitioner.

As indicated, only after a parent has been found to have willfully failed to pay will they be ordered to pay attorney fees. This is important for two reasons: 1) because a parent who simply does not have the resources to pay child support or otherwise did not willfully violate the order cannot then be ordered to pay attorney fees in addition to child support and 2) attorney fees are only recoverable at the conclusion of the willfulness hearing, not the beginning.