Lawyers Manual - Unified Court System

152 Judy Reichler
Pro Se Non-Custodial Parent
It is highly likely that you will find yourself negotiating the issue of child
support with a person who is not represented by counsel. This is always more
difficult because the pro se litigant may not know the law and what is legally
permissible. In addition, he may be so emotionally involved that agreement is
not possible. Combine this with a history of belligerence, abuse, and control,
and productive communication is unlikely. Avoid being alone in a room with
your client and her abusive partner. If this happens, you should cease
negotiations immediately and rely on the court to make the decisions.
Public Assistance Recipients
When entering into an agreement with a client who is receiving, or who
plans to apply for, public assistance or other public benefits (such as food
stamps or public housing), care must be taken to assure that the agreement
doesn’t inadvertently make her ineligible for assistance. Similarly, if receipt of
child support payments would remove the family from public assistance, but not
enough to make up for the loss of the $50 pass-through and other public
benefits, some other arrangement might be preferable.
If the client is receiving family assistance, she has assigned to the state her
rights to child support and alimony. All payments must be made to the SCU and
not to her for so long as she continues to receive public assistance. If she leaves
public assistance and there are arrears that accumulated before she left, that
money must also go to SCU, although she can receive current support payments.
New York’s Child Support Standards Act (CSSA)
Both the Family Court and the Supreme Court are required to use the CSSA
in setting child support orders. 18
How the CSSA Works
Passed in 1989 to comply with a federal mandate, the CSSA provides a
step-by-step method of determining the level of child support to be ordered. The
CSSA rests on the principles that children are entitled to share in the income and
standard of living of both parents, whether or not they are living together, and
that child support should be the first obligation to be met, not the last. Briefly,
the CSSA defines the level of support as a percent of parental income,