By Michele Evans / NYweeklyRecord.com / Date: 7/22/2026
Category: Courts / Family Justice / Child Support / Accountability
NEW YORK CITY, NY – New York City parents seeking child support are waiting far longer than families elsewhere in the state, according to a new Her Justice analysis of court records. Behind those averages are rent bills, grocery costs and children whose needs do not pause while a case crawls through Family Court.
Her Justice analyzed 791,250 child-support case records derived from New York State Office of Court Administration data. The review covered 2019 and the years 2022 through 2025, giving researchers a broad look at what happened before and after the pandemic shutdowns.
The report found that obtaining an order of support took an average of 10.5 months in New York City, compared with about 3.5 months outside the five boroughs. Across all child-support matters, city cases averaged 6.7 months, more than twice the 2.8-month average elsewhere in the state.
The scale is enormous. About 130,000 child-support cases were filed in 2025, accounting for nearly 30 percent of Family Court filings. Her Justice said more than 90 percent of parents in these cases navigate the process without lawyers.
For Humu Yansané, the delay was not an abstract statistic. She told Gothamist that she waited nearly three years after filing in 2016. During that wait, she said she fell behind on rent and other bills and received an eviction notice.
The report identified pandemic backlogs and confusing court documents as factors that can prolong cases. It also found that about 30 percent of filings were dismissed without any action, raising questions about whether parents are being lost in a process they are largely expected to navigate alone.
There are signs of improvement, but they need careful reading. Brooklyn’s average timeline for an order of support fell from 18.1 months in 2022 to 4.3 months in 2025. Her Justice cautioned that 17 percent of records in the dataset remained open and that incomplete 2025 data should temper conclusions about the apparent gains.
The analysis comes from an advocacy organization, not from OCA itself. Gothamist reported on July 21 that OCA had not responded to its request for comment. That leaves unanswered questions about what court administrators dispute, what reforms are already underway and how they will measure whether families are actually receiving support faster.
Her Justice is backing Assembly Bill A3531, which would create an expedited route for consensual child-support settlements. The proposal could reduce delays in cases where parents agree, but it would not by itself solve staffing shortages, paperwork barriers or the broader backlog.
Family Court delay has a price, and children pay it first. Court leaders and lawmakers now have a detailed warning. The public needs a response that includes verified timelines, transparent progress reports and a plan that treats child support as an urgent family obligation, not an administrative afterthought.
Sources
Her Justice Child Support Court Data Report
Gothamist: NYC Parents Wait Three Times as Long for Child Support Orders
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