Enforcing Custody, Visitation and Support Orders in New York

Custody and visitation orders

If the other parent is not following a custody or visitation order, CourtHelp explains that you may file an enforcement petition in Family Court, there will be a hearing, and the court will decide whether there was a violation and what to do next.

The statewide form is General Form GF-41, Petition for Enforcement of Order of Custody or Visitation Made by Supreme Court or Family Court, revision 4/2025. For an order made by a court outside New York or a tribal court, the form directs you to Form UCCJEA-11. For orders from Family Court, the court system points to a free Custody/Visitation Enforcement DIY Form program.

What GF-41 asks

• Your relationship to the children and their names
• The court, county and index or docket number where the order was made
• The date and terms of the judgment or order, with a true copy attached
• For a Supreme Court order, whether that court retained exclusive jurisdiction to enforce it
• The provisions you say were violated and the nature of each violation (paragraph 8)
• Any previous application for the same relief

GF-41 also contains an optional warning box. If it is checked, the petition tells the respondent that the purpose of the hearing is to punish them for contempt of court, and the form's warning text describes what that can involve. Whether to check it is your decision; read the form's exact wording before you do.

See GF-41 paragraph by paragraph, with the printed form beside it.

Orders from a Supreme Court divorce

Family Court Act § 652(b) allows the Family Court to determine an application to enforce a Supreme Court custody or visitation order, unless the Supreme Court provided in its order or judgment that it may be enforced or modified only in the Supreme Court.

Child support orders

For support, CourtHelp points to the free Support Modification and Enforcement/Violation DIY Form program, which can ask the Family Court to enforce an order the other parent is not following.

• Under Family Court Act § 454(1), if after a hearing the court is satisfied by competent proof that the respondent failed to obey a lawful support order, the court may use the enforcement powers in that part of the Act. Section 454(2) lists them, beginning with a money judgment and an income deduction order.
• Under § 454(3)(a), failure to pay support as ordered constitutes prima facie evidence of a willful violation.
• Under § 438(b), if the court finds the failure to obey a support order was willful, it shall order the respondent to pay counsel fees to the petitioner's attorney.