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N.Y. FCT Law § 262

This is the official text of N.Y. FCT Law § 262, part of New York’s FCT Law — part of the compiled statutory law of New York, published by the state as "FCT Law." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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Assignment of counsel for indigent persons

Official statutory text

§ 262. Assignment of counsel for indigent persons. (a) Each of the\npersons described below in this subdivision has the right to the\nassistance of counsel. When such person first appears in court, the\njudge shall advise such person before proceeding that he or she has the\nright to be represented by counsel of his or her own choosing, of the\nright to have an adjournment to confer with counsel, and of the right to\nhave counsel assigned by the court in any case where he or she is\nfinancially unable to obtain the same:\n (i) the respondent in any proceeding under article ten or ten-A of\nthis act and the petitioner in any proceeding under part eight of\narticle ten of this act;\n (ii) the petitioner and the respondent in any proceeding under article\neight of this act;\n (iii) the respondent in any proceeding under part three of article six\nof this act;\n (iv) the parent or person legally responsible, foster parent, or other\nperson having physical or legal custody of the child in any proceeding\nunder article ten or ten-A of this act or section three hundred\nfifty-eight-a, three hundred eighty-four or three hundred eighty-four-b\nof the social services law, and a non-custodial parent or grandparent\nserved with notice pursuant to paragraph (e) of subdivision two of\nsection three hundred eighty-four-a of the social services law;\n (v) the parent of any child seeking custody or contesting the\nsubstantial infringement of his or her right to custody of such child,\nin any proceeding before the court in which the court has jurisdiction\nto determine such custody;\n (vi) any person in any proceeding before the court in which an order\nor other determination is being sought to hold such person in contempt\nof the court or in willful violation of a previous order of the court,\nexcept for a contempt which may be punished summarily under section\nseven hundred fifty-five of the judiciary law;\n (vii) the parent of a child in any adoption proceeding who opposes the\nadoption of such child.\n (viii) the respondent in any proceeding under article five of this act\nin relation to the establishment of paternity.\n (ix) in a proceeding under article ten-C of this act:\n (1) a parent or caretaker as such terms are defined in section one\nthousand ninety-two of this act;\n (2) an interested adult as such term is defined in section one\nthousand ninety-two of this act provided that:\n (A) the child alleged to be destitute in the proceeding held pursuant\nto article ten-C of this act was removed from the care of such\ninterested adult;\n (B) the child alleged to be destitute in the proceeding held pursuant\nto article ten-C of this act resides with the interested adult; or\n (C) the child alleged to be destitute in the proceeding held pursuant\nto article ten-C of this act resided with such interested adult\nimmediately prior to the filing of the petition under article ten-C of\nthis act;\n (3) any interested adult as such term is defined in section one\nthousand ninety-two of this act or any person made a party to the\narticle ten-C proceeding pursuant to subdivision (c) of section one\nthousand ninety-four of this act for whom the court orders counsel\nappointed pursuant to subdivision (d) of section one thousand\nninety-four of this act.\n (b) Assignment of counsel in other cases. In addition to the cases\nlisted in subdivision (a) of this section, a judge may assign counsel to\nrepresent any adult in a proceeding under this act if he determines that\nsuch assignment of counsel is mandated by the constitution of the state\nof New York or of the United States, and includes such determination in\nthe order assigning counsel;\n (c) Implementation. Any order for the assignment of counsel issued\nunder this part shall be implemented as provided in article eighteen-B\nof the county law.\n

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.