New York Court of Appeals Roundup: Right to Counsel, Same-Sex Parents, Support, Equitable Distribution
In their monthly column in the New York Law Journal, Roy Reardon and Mary Elizabeth McGarry discuss The Court of Appeals' majority and dissenting opinions in an action challenging various counties' systems for providing legal representation to criminal defendants. Separately, the Court generated six opinions in two cases arising out of a child born during a lesbian couple's relationship, one of which involved the rights and the other the responsibilities of the woman who was not the biological mother. In two other cases, one involving support obligations (decided unanimously) and another discovery into marital fault for equitable distribution purposes (resolved 6-1), biological mothers had deceived men as to the paternity of a child.