CHILD SUPPORT IN NEW YORK

Here is something that I learned yesterday in a different type of litigation - in which someone was trying evict an individual under the age of 21. One would usually expect that a parent's obligation to support ends at 18, the year a child can drive, vote, etc. However, a parents liability for the support of his or her children continues for children under the age of 21 years. Of course, in the absence of an express or implied contract, parents have no duty to support an adult child. For custody, visitation and other purposes, the age of majority is age 18, but for purposes of the parental support obligation, the age of majority remains at 21. The mutual parental duty of child support is not absolute. It may be suspended or terminated before the child is 21 if the child becomes emancipated by becoming economically independent of his/her parents through employment, by marriage or entry into the military service. Under unusual circumstances, a child may be deemed emancipated if he/she is guilty of outrageous misbehavior, such as behavior which makes it inequitable to enforce the support obligation, or if without cause, he/she withdraws from parental control and supervision. So in New York, child support generally ends at age 21, unless there is an agreement to terminate it at an older age. See DRL 240 and FCA 413.