Search results for "DIVORCE"

In a criminal case the judge can assign a lawyer to help you. In most civil cases the judge can not assign a lawyer. Civil cases are about divorce, family law, housing, money you owe, wills, and more. You can get a free lawyer assigned for some kinds of civil cases, so ask the judge. 

Most people can't afford a lawyer or get a free lawyer. Representing yourself is hard, but it’s not impossible. 

Stand up for yourself

To help your case, you have to stick up for yourself. This means you: 

Child support payments help children survive and thrive. Sometimes parents need to change child support. If your circumstances change, your child support order does not automatically change. If you stop paying, the owed payments will continue to add up. If you need a change in payments, go to court as soon as possible to file a petition. Explain the change in your circumstances and ask for a change of the order.

If I think that the other parent may kidnap my child, is there anything I can do?

New York State has an official court website with a list of all the Family Court locations by county.

To find a Family Court in the rest of New York State (outside of New York City), choose your county on the NYcourts.gov website.

New York City has family court locations in each of the five Boroughs:

In the court system, an appeal is when someone who loses a case asks a higher court to review a decision and change it. The person who asks for the appeal is called the appellant and the person who is on the other side of the appeal is called the respondent. Appeals are hard and have strict rules and deadlines.

The basic steps in an appeals case:

You can ask the Family Court to keep your address private. This means that your address is not shared with the other person in your case. All court papers have your address on it and the other person gets a copy of the court papers, so if you do not want the other person to know your address, you have to ask for your address to be kept confidential.

To keep your address private:

There are different types of laws. Federal laws apply to everyone in the United States. State and local laws apply to people who live or work in a particular state, commonwealth, territory, county, city, municipality, town, township or village.

"Power of Attorney" (POA) is when you assign a trusted person the authority to spend your money and sell or dispose of your property during your lifetime. If they have POA, they can do this without telling you.

Things to know: