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Validity of Child Support Statute Is Questioned

By Noeleen G. Walder
May 27, 2009

In a unanimous panel decision issued by the Appellate Division, First Department, the court recently invalidated a 1992 support agreement because it failed to provide adequate support for a child born out of wedlock. What made the case noteworthy was the fact that the court's opinion called into question the constitutionality of a decades-old family law statute that requires judicial approval of an agreement for child support between a mother and the purported father of a nonmarital child.

In the case, In re Barbara N. v. James H.N., 4399, the court declined to actually rule on the constitutionality of Family Court Act ' 516, but the panel noted that “to the extent the statute precludes attempts to reverse support agreements for nonmarital children, its constitutionality is questionable.”

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