Legal Question in Family Law in New York

Re: Child Law

For some reason, it seems to take a long time between when you submit your question, and when they are "circulated" for answers.

As is always the case in the family court system, a lot depends on where you are located; there is 'poor' uniformity of practice from county to county, rural to urban.

That being said, it is, unfortunately, NOT Uncommon for private custody cases to make it through the system without a law guardian being assigned to the children - - particularly if the children are very young and/or there is nothing "neon" in the petition(s) etc., to suggest that they *need* to be brought into the fray.

I would think that a parent who was asked this exact question by the children ought to give serious consideration to making it known to the court that the children *want* to participate and asking the court to assign a law guardian to represent them. [I am, of course, assuming that there IS a proceeding 'in progress'; I don't think the system is, yet, ready to accommodate children trying to get a lawyer so that they can initiate their own proceeding.]

Regards, etc.,

J.M. Hayes

>>--> The foregoing amounts to musings and observations based on some years familiarity with the 'day-to-day' operation of the law with regard to the issues involved In The Most General sense; my remarks should not be thought of as "legal advice and counsel" in the formal sense of that phrase, since there is, in fact, no 'attorney / client' relationship existing between us. <-<<