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FAMILY COURT DID NOT GIVE RESPONDENT ANY TIME TO PREPARE FOR THE CHILD SUPPORT HEARING AND INDICATED SHE HAD PREDETERMINED THE OUTCOME; ORDER REVERSED (FOURTH DEPT).

The Fourth Department, reversing Family Court, determined the judge should have given respondent mother time to prepare for the child-support hearing. In addition, the Fourth Department noted the judge had improperly “predetermined” the case:

Family Court erred when it determined that his alleged violation of the child support order was willful and sentenced him to incarceration because the court did not afford respondent the right to a fair hearing … . Although “[n]o specific form of a hearing is required, . . . at a minimum the hearing must consist of an adducement of proof coupled with an opportunity to rebut it” … , and the court must provide “counsel reasonable opportunity to appear and present respondent’s evidence and arguments” … . Here, the court denied respondent’s assigned counsel an adjournment to allow her time to prepare for the hearing, for which she had no prior notice, and further prohibited her from conferring with respondent before the court attempted to swear in respondent to testify, and the court in so doing denied respondent his right to counsel and, thus, denied him a fair hearing, prior to sentencing him to a period of incarceration … .

Further, the record demonstrates that the court “had a predetermined outcome of the case in mind during the hearing” … and “took on the function and appearance of an advocate” … . Specifically, the court, inter alia, sua sponte transformed what was scheduled as an appearance for a “[r]eport” into a hearing, over the objection of respondent’s assigned counsel; exhorted that, “[i]f [respondent] wants to be cheeky with me, we’ll be cheeky”; advised the parties in advance that the hearing was only “going to take ten minutes”; sought to call respondent as a witness for the court’s own line of questioning regarding his employment and inquired of respondent’s counsel whether respondent would “like to answer my questions now or would he like to go to jail today”; and asked respondent if he had “clean underwear on,” thereby implying that he would be going directly to jail after the hearing. Matter of Onondaga County v Taylor, 2024 NY Slip Op 04040, Fourth Dept 7-26-24

Practice Point: Here the Family Court judge was reversed because she did not give respondent mother time to prepare for the child support hearing and indicated to respondent she had predetermined the outcome of the hearing.​

 

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