Family Court Act § 342.1 · Part 4. The Fact-finding Hearing
The fact-finding hearing; order of procedure
Text — Law content up to date as of August 21, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
§ 342.1. The fact-finding hearing; order of procedure. The order of the fact-finding hearing shall be as follows:
1. The court shall permit the parties to deliver opening addresses. If both parties deliver opening addresses, the presentment agency's address shall be delivered first.
2. The presentment agency must offer evidence in support of the petition.
3. The respondent may offer evidence in his defense.
4. The presentment agency may offer evidence in rebuttal of the respondent's evidence, and the respondent may then offer evidence in rebuttal of the presentment agency's evidence. The court may in its discretion permit the parties to offer further rebuttal or surrebuttal evidence in this pattern. In the interest of justice, the court may permit either party to offer evidence upon rebuttal which is not technically of a rebuttal nature but more properly a part of the offering party's original case.
5. At the conclusion of the evidence, the respondent shall have the right to deliver a summation.
6. The presentment agency shall then have the right to deliver a summation.
7. The court must then consider the case and enter a finding.
Source of truth
- Edition
- Law content up to date as of August 21, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
- Official file
- https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/laws/FCT342.1
- Text hash
- sha256 85f2377e36d8058697ac457d38cbd5ec462a76eb69ca4893456b5fc7d8cb1b71
- Composed by
- gen_ny_statutes.py 2026-11-10: the Senate's Open Legislation law tree (GET /api/3/laws/<ID>?full=true) read in document order; the Senate's PDF of the whole law (GET /pdf/laws/<ID>?full=true), read with PDFium, prints the same words in the same order
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.