Law.com Subscribers SAVE 30%

Call 855-808-4530 or email [email protected] to receive your discount on a new subscription.

Child-Support Judgments Beyond U.S. Borders

By Seth Lapidow, Michael Rowe and Heidi Tallentire
June 01, 2016

It is supposed to be easy for a litigant who has obtained a child-support judgment from outside of a state to get relief in another state. The whole purpose behind the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA), adopted, for example, as Article 5-b of the New York Family Court Act (FCA), is to make the process uniform, cheap and easy to register and enforce support judgments from different states. But what about a cross-border award? Here, the U.S. government steps in with the Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance, a multilateral treaty governing the enforcement of judicial decisions regarding child support (and other forms of family support) extraterritorially. Pursuant to the Convention, the United States has entered into reciprocity agreements with 26 countries which allow the same procedures used to register interstate awards to apply to foreign awards. See http://1.usa.gov/21wU7IY.

What do you do if your child support judgment is from a country not on the list?

The 2015 case of Bond v. Lichtenstein, 129 A.D.3d 535 (1st Dept. 2015), in which the authors represented the mother, Annabelle Bond, is instructive. In that case, Bond brought an action in the Supreme Court, New York County, to enforce the judgment she obtained in Hong Kong awarding child support. The case clarified for the first time how to enforce such an award and the entitlement to attorney fees in so doing.

This premium content is locked for Entertainment Law & Finance subscribers only

  • Stay current on the latest information, rulings, regulations, and trends
  • Includes practical, must-have information on copyrights, royalties, AI, and more
  • Tap into expert guidance from top entertainment lawyers and experts

For enterprise-wide or corporate acess, please contact Customer Service at [email protected] or 877-256-2473

Read These Next
Major Differences In UK, U.S. Copyright Laws Image

This article highlights how copyright law in the United Kingdom differs from U.S. copyright law, and points out differences that may be crucial to entertainment and media businesses familiar with U.S law that are interested in operating in the United Kingdom or under UK law. The article also briefly addresses contrasts in UK and U.S. trademark law.

Strategy vs. Tactics: Two Sides of a Difficult Coin Image

With each successive large-scale cyber attack, it is slowly becoming clear that ransomware attacks are targeting the critical infrastructure of the most powerful country on the planet. Understanding the strategy, and tactics of our opponents, as well as the strategy and the tactics we implement as a response are vital to victory.

The Article 8 Opt In Image

The Article 8 opt-in election adds an additional layer of complexity to the already labyrinthine rules governing perfection of security interests under the UCC. A lender that is unaware of the nuances created by the opt in (may find its security interest vulnerable to being primed by another party that has taken steps to perfect in a superior manner under the circumstances.

Removing Restrictive Covenants In New York Image

In Rockwell v. Despart, the New York Supreme Court, Third Department, recently revisited a recurring question: When may a landowner seek judicial removal of a covenant restricting use of her land?

The Benefits of Blockchain for e-Discovery and Data Preservation Image

As businesses across various industries increasingly adopt blockchain, it will become a critical source of discoverable electronically stored information. The potential benefits of blockchain for e-discovery and data preservation are substantial, making it an area of growing interest and importance.