Legal Question in Family Law in New York

Judicial Misconduct
My divorce details a split residency and split custody.In the teen years the child lived exclusively in one home or the other for extended periods of time. This resulted in the mother filing a support/custody petition. Decision making authority was divided between a Judge and a family court Hearing Officer. The Judge immediately ruled custody would remain joint as stated in the divorce. Temporary support was awarded because at the time the child was with the mother. Over the course of 2 years with the hearing officer, since the child kept moving from one home to the other,the ruling was to revert to the support arrangement as stated in the divorce. The decision was overturned on appeal because it was determined erroneous. The Hearing Officer bypassed requiring motions be filed or taking official testimony on each change of circumstances so there was no documentation in the case file supporting his decision. Filing a retroactive petition for each ocurrance was not possible and following the reversal there was yet another change in circumstances. The net result was I paid for over a year of child support when according to the law I should likely have been recieving it. Is a court system, not the hearing officer, liable for this?

Asked on 6/26/02, 1:01 pm

David Slater David P. Slater, Esq.

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Re: Judicial Misconduct

Unless you can prove intentional fraud by the judicil system, it is immune from monetary liability.

Answered on 6/27/02, 4:27 am

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