Family Court Act § 838 · Part 3. Hearing
Petitioner and respondent may have friend or relative present
Text — Law content up to date as of August 21, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
§ 838. Petitioner and respondent may have friend or relative present. Unless the court shall find it undesirable, the petitioner shall be entitled to a non-witness friend, relative, counselor or social worker present in the court room. This section does not authorize any such person to take part in the proceedings. However, at any time during the proceeding, the court may call such person as a witness and take his or her testimony. Unless the court shall find it undesirable, the respondent shall be entitled to a non-witness friend, relative, counselor or social worker present in the court room in the event such respondent is not represented by legal counsel. This section does not authorize any such person to take part in the proceedings. However, at any time during the proceeding, the court may call such person as a witness and take his or her testimony.
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/FCT838
- Text hash
- sha256 776df6b4827e40614b8a204ba5061aa6388f30c68d940b3799754b34cc09ce8d
- 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.