Westchester County Child Custody Lawyer

Over nearly 30 years, Westchester County child custody lawyer Stephen Bilkis has helped parents through some of the hardest disputes a family can face, and the firm he leads has handled more than 500 child custody cases. Its attorneys collectively bring more than 300 years of legal experience to each case they handle. From the river towns along the Hudson to the Sound Shore, Westchester custody cases are as varied as the communities they come from.

For Westchester County parents, a custody dispute can raise frightening questions: Will I still be there for school events and bedtime? Will the other parent start making the decisions without me? What will the judge think of me? We start by listening to those concerns and learning how your family actually works.

No two families arrive at this point the same way. Some parents are largely in agreement and need their arrangement formalized in a court order that will hold up. Others are divided over where their child should live, whether a parent can move out of the county, or whether the child is safe in the other home. Grandparents and other relatives who have taken on a caregiving role also turn to us for help. The Westchester County child custody lawyers at our firm will help you understand your rights and pursue a plan centered on your child’s well-being and your goals.

The dedication Stephen Bilkis has shown to Westchester families has not gone unnoticed by others in the legal community. He has been selected for the New York Super Lawyers list, an honor reserved for the top 5% of attorneys in the state. Avvo has given him an Excellent score, Justia has named him a Top-Rated Lawyer, and he has also been recognized by Expertise.com and TopLawyer.com.

How Westchester Family Courts Determine the Best Interests of the Child

Many parents feel as though their future with their child is being placed in the hands of someone who knows nothing about their family. Stephen Bilkis and his team work to change that by presenting the court with concrete proof of your involvement and your child’s needs. We gather school records, medical and counseling records, extracurricular schedules, and testimony from teachers, coaches, caregivers, and family friends, and we prepare you thoroughly before you take the stand.

A Westchester judge deciding custody is really trying to predict which arrangement will let your child thrive, and whether you are the mother or the father plays no part in that prediction. To make it, the judge usually looks in three directions:

• Back at your family’s history: The court wants to know who has actually raised the child so far, from packing lunches and helping with homework to handling doctor visits, and how close the child has grown to each parent along the way.
• At your family’s life right now: The judge must consider domestic violence shown by the evidence, even without a criminal conviction, as well as any health problem affecting a parent’s care and whether long workdays or a commute into Manhattan leave time for the child’s daily needs.
• Ahead to your child’s future: The court weighs whether the parents can make decisions together, whether each parent will support the child’s relationship with the other, whether siblings can stay together and close to relatives, and what a mature child says they want, without letting that wish decide the case on its own.

Parents who never married, and parents who need custody decided outside of a divorce, generally bring their cases to Westchester County Family Court. Its main courthouse is the Richard J. Daronco Courthouse at 111 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in White Plains, and the court also hears cases in Yonkers and New Rochelle. When custody is part of a divorce, Westchester County Supreme Court decides it instead. In either court, the judge applies the best-interests standard. Dom. Rel. Law § 240(1)(a).

When a custody or visitation hearing or trial starts in Family Court, court rules require it to proceed to conclusion within 90 days. That leaves no room to track down a missing document midway, so we have your records and witnesses ready before the first hearing date.

Westchester parents in contested cases often want to know what an attorney for the child does. In many contested custody cases, the court appoints a lawyer who meets with the child, learns the child’s views, and speaks for the child in court. This lawyer does not work for either parent, so it helps to understand how the attorney for the child’s position may affect your case.

Understanding Legal and Physical Custody in Westchester County

Before you can fight for the right custody arrangement, you need to understand what you are actually asking for, and that can be hard when emotions are running high. Stephen Bilkis & Associates takes the time to explain how each form of custody would affect your daily life with your child. We review your family’s schedules, your child’s activities, and your ability to cooperate with the other parent so we can advise you on the arrangement best suited to your situation.

New York law divides custody into legal custody, which covers major decisions, and physical custody, which covers where the child lives. Legal custody comes up in three main areas of a child’s life:

• Education: Choices like which school district or private school the child attends, or whether to pursue special education services, are generally made together under joint legal custody, unless the order gives one parent the final say, and by one parent alone under sole legal custody.
• Medical care: Major health decisions, such as non-emergency treatment, therapy, or choosing doctors, follow the same rule, although custody orders often let either parent handle emergencies during their own time.
• Religious upbringing: Decisions about religious education and practice also fall under legal custody, and an order may spell out how the parents will handle them.

Physical custody, which some people call residential custody, refers to the child’s living arrangements. The child may reside primarily with one parent while spending regular time with the other, or may live in both homes on a shared schedule. A shared schedule does not have to divide time equally.

Parenting Time and Visitation in Westchester County

For a parent whose child lives primarily in the other home, the fear of becoming a stranger in your child’s life can be overwhelming. Under Stephen Bilkis’s leadership, our attorneys seek a parenting schedule that keeps you involved in both the big moments and the everyday ones. Our proposed schedules cover weekends, weekday visits, holidays, vacations, and exchanges, including who provides transportation and where the handoff takes place.

A parent without primary physical custody is generally entitled to regular parenting time unless that time would be harmful to the child. The parents may agree on a schedule, or the court can impose one. If there are serious safety concerns, such as a history of abuse, substance use, or a long absence from the child’s life, the court may require that visits take place under the supervision of a neutral third party.

Summer trips abroad raise another common question for Westchester parents, namely whether the other parent can take the child out of the country. The answer depends on the terms of your custody order, which may require consent or advance notice for international travel. Federal rules also generally require both parents’ consent before a passport is issued for a child under 16, unless one parent has sole legal custody or a court order giving them authority over the passport.

Interstate Custody Cases in Westchester County

Westchester sits on the Connecticut border and a short drive from New Jersey, so it is not unusual for parents in a custody dispute to live in different states. Stephen Bilkis & Associates helps parents sort out which state’s courts can decide custody before time and money are spent in the wrong place. We gather school enrollment records, leases, and other proof of where the child has lived to establish the right court from the start.

A few questions usually decide which state hears the case:

• Where the child has lived: If no custody order exists yet, the state where the child lived with a parent or someone acting as a parent for six consecutive months generally has the authority to decide custody.
• Whether another state has already ruled: If a court in Connecticut, New Jersey, or elsewhere has already issued a custody order, that court generally keeps control of the case unless certain conditions are met.
• Whether there is an emergency: A New York court can step in temporarily to protect a child who is here and in danger, even when another state would normally decide custody.

The first two rules come with important details. Temporary absences can count toward the six months, and a state can keep its authority for six months after the child leaves if a parent or someone acting as a parent still lives there. A state that has already issued an order generally keeps control until the child, the parents, and anyone acting as a parent have all moved away, or until that court finds the family no longer has significant connections there and the evidence about the child is no longer available there. The issuing court can also decline to hear the case in favor of another state.

For example, if a mother in Port Chester came to us after the father took their son to his new home in Greenwich and filed for custody there a few weeks later, we would file for custody in Westchester County Family Court. We would gather school and medical records showing the boy had lived in New York for the six months before he left, and ask the Connecticut court to step aside, since New York would remain his home state.

Relocation With a Child in Westchester County

Whether you want to move closer to family, take a new job, or find a home in a different school district, relocating with your child after a custody order can quickly become contentious. Stephen Bilkis and his team help both parents who want to move and parents who want their child to stay nearby. We develop evidence on the purpose of the move, the benefits to the child, travel logistics, and a new parenting schedule that preserves the child’s relationship with both parents.

New York’s modern relocation rule traces back in part to a Westchester family. In Browner v. Kenward, decided together with Tropea v. Tropea, 87 N.Y.2d 727 (1996), a mother asked to move with her son from Westchester to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and the Court of Appeals upheld the move. The court used the two cases to set the standard still followed today. Judges weigh all the circumstances and decide whether the move serves the child’s best interests, including each parent’s reasons, the effect on the child’s relationship with the other parent, and whether the child’s life would improve.

Once a custody order is in place, a parent who wants to move with the child may need the other parent’s consent or the court’s approval, especially if the order limits where the parent may live. Even without that kind of limit, a move that would substantially cut into the other parent’s time can be challenged in court.

A recent Westchester decision shows how those factors can weigh against a move. In Matter of A.L. v. B.M., 2026 NY Slip Op 50879(U), Westchester County Family Court denied a mother’s request to move with her seven-year-old to Indiana, finding that the move would reduce how often and how meaningfully the father could see the child:

• A close bond with the father: The father lived ten minutes from the mother and took part in the child’s field trips, school events, and activities.
• A thin plan for staying connected: The mother’s proposed long-distance schedule surfaced for the first time during the court proceedings and lacked detail about how it would actually work.
• A young child’s wishes: The court considered the child’s wish to move but found that, at seven, the child was too young to understand the long-term effects.

Modifying a Custody Order in Westchester County

A custody order is based on your family’s circumstances at the time it was issued, but families rarely stay the same for long. Stephen Bilkis & Associates helps Westchester parents seek changes to outdated orders and defends parents against modification requests they believe are unjustified. We collect evidence of what has changed, such as a new work schedule, a relocation, a child’s difficulties at school, or safety issues, and show the court why the proposed change would or would not serve the child.

Generally, a parent asking to change a custody order has to clear two hurdles:

• A real change in circumstances: Something significant must have happened since the order was entered, not just a brief rough patch or an ordinary disagreement.
• A benefit to the child: The parent must then show that the new arrangement would serve the child’s best interests.

Westchester parents also ask whether an ex’s new partner can change the custody arrangement. A new relationship on its own is not a reason to change custody. However, the court may consider how a new partner affects the child, including whether the partner poses any risk to the child’s safety or well-being.

Grandparents’ Rights to Custody and Visitation in Westchester County

Grandparents who have helped raise a grandchild can be devastated when a parent suddenly decides to end that relationship. Stephen Bilkis and his team help grandparents pursuing visitation or custody and also defend parents who are facing those claims. We document the grandparent’s role in the child’s life through caregiving history, photographs, school and medical records, and testimony from people who have seen the relationship firsthand.

Before the court will consider visitation, a grandparent must first show they have the right to ask for it. That right exists automatically if either of the child’s parents has died. Otherwise, the grandparent must show circumstances that justify the court’s involvement, such as a real, ongoing relationship with the child or a sincere effort to build one that a parent unreasonably blocked. The court then decides whether visitation is in the child’s best interests and gives substantial weight to the wishes of a fit parent.

Custody requires much more. A grandparent must first show extraordinary circumstances, such as abandonment, a parent’s unfitness, or an extended disruption of custody. If a child has lived in the grandparent’s household for at least 24 continuous months while a parent voluntarily gave up care and control, the law treats that as an extraordinary circumstance, and a shorter separation can sometimes qualify. A parent who kept in touch during that time can still be found to have given up care and control, so the court looks at the whole arrangement. Dom. Rel. Law § 72(2)(a)-(b).

Grandparents raising a grandchild sometimes wonder whether they need custody or guardianship. A grandparent or other relative can ask the court for custody directly, but they must first show extraordinary circumstances, and the court must then find that custody with them serves the child’s best interests. Guardianship is a separate legal arrangement that can give a grandparent or another adult authority to make decisions for a child. It may be appropriate when a parent agrees to the arrangement or cannot provide care. If a parent opposes guardianship, however, the grandparent generally must show extraordinary circumstances before the court decides whether guardianship would serve the child’s best interests.

Enforcing a Custody or Visitation Order in Westchester County

Few things are as frustrating as doing everything a custody order requires while the other parent treats it as optional. The attorneys Stephen Bilkis leads help you take action to protect your rights and your time with your child. We start by compiling a detailed log of each violation, supported by dates, communications, and witnesses, and then determine which court has the power to enforce the order, whether that is Westchester County Family Court or another court.

How we respond depends on the kind of violation:

• Missed or blocked parenting time: We ask the court to order make-up time and to direct the other parent to follow the schedule.
• Repeated late returns or skipped exchanges: We may ask for clearer exchange times and locations and, when a change would serve the child’s best interests, a change in the custody arrangement.
• Major decisions made alone: When a parent with joint legal custody acts without the other parent, we ask the court to enforce the shared decision-making the order requires.
• Ongoing, willful defiance: We may seek a contempt finding when the legal requirements are met, and repeated interference can also count against that parent in later custody proceedings.

Request a Free, No-Obligation Consultation with Stephen Bilkis & Associates

If you are a Westchester County parent involved in a custody dispute, or you need to modify or enforce a custody order, contact the experienced child custody attorneys serving Westchester County at Stephen Bilkis & Associates today for a free consultation at 800.696.9529. Tell us what led to the dispute, whether an order or court appearance is already pending, and what outcome you want for your child. We will discuss your situation and identify the next steps that may be available. Early action matters, because gathering records and lining up witnesses takes time, and a well-prepared parent is in a far stronger position from the very first court appearance.

Clients who reach out to our firm can expect the same commitment that has earned Stephen Bilkis respect throughout his career. Among his professional honors is his selection to the New York Super Lawyers list, which includes only the top 5% of attorneys in the state. He also holds an Excellent score from Avvo and a Top-Rated Lawyer designation from Justia, and he has been recognized by Expertise.com and TopLawyer.com. Stephen Bilkis & Associates helps parents and families throughout Westchester County, from Yonkers and New Rochelle to White Plains and Peekskill.