Family Court Act § 737 · Part 3. Preliminary Procedure
Service of summons
Text — Law content up to date as of August 21, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
§ 737. Service of summons. (a) Service of a summons and petition shall be made by delivery of a true copy thereof to the person summoned at least twenty-four hours before the time stated therein for appearance. If so requested by one acting on behalf of the respondent or by a parent or other person legally responsible for his care, the court shall not proceed with the hearing or proceeding earlier than three days after such service.
(b) If after reasonable effort, personal service is not made, the court may at any stage in the proceedings make an order providing for substituted service in the manner provided for substituted service in civil process in courts of record.
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/FCT737
- Text hash
- sha256 8a5655077b6375a9507c7baad19032b51b754ee75b73bdc60e2b6f7d414b30d3
- 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.