Lawyers Manual - Unified Court System

144 Judy Reichler
would not be in the best interests of the child for any one of these reasons — and
the agency believes that proceeding to establish paternity or secure support would
be detrimental to the child:
1. cooperation is reasonably anticipated to result in serious
physical or emotional harm to the child;
2. cooperation is reasonably expected to result in serious physical
or emotional harm to the custodial parent (or caretaker
relative), which will reduce the caretaker’s ability to
adequately care for the child;
3. the child was conceived as a result of incest or rape (other
than statutory rape), or adoption proceedings for the child are
pending, or the parent is attempting, with the help of a social
services agency, to decide whether to keep the child or
relinquish it for adoption.
Before imposing sanctions, the agency must comply with due process
requirements. The agency must inform the applicant or recipient, in writing, of
her obligations and rights with regard to child support and the consequences of
refusing to meet the obligations. The agency must allow the applicant or recipient
to make a claim of good cause for refusal to cooperate, and it must make a
written determination as to the validity of the claim. Although the applicant or
recipient has the burden of establishing good cause, and she must provide any
evidence she has to corroborate her claim of good cause, the agency must assist
her in obtaining documents and other evidence, if she requests it. The agency
can even conduct its own investigation. The agency must pay benefits to the
family while it considers the good cause claim, and, as in any other fair hearing
situation, benefits must be paid pending a determination if her claim is denied
by the agency.
Care must be taken in reading these rules because buried in them are certain
restrictions on the occasions when “good cause” may be found. For example, in
regard to “physical or emotional harm,” the harm must be “serious,” and a
finding of good cause for emotional harm [to the child or to the caregiver] may
be based only upon a demonstration of an emotional impairment that
substantially affects the individual’s functioning. It would be helpful to show, for
example, detriment from past contacts, and from even the prospect of having
him enter their lives. The harm may be poor school performance or other indicia
of physical or emotional stress, such as frequent trips to doctors. If the child has
developed a relationship with another man who she thinks of as her father, it