According to New York law a child is emancipated if they are between 17 & 21 and refuses to obey their parents' reasonable commancds. My child is 18, refuses to go to college, refuses to go to work & refuses to go to family therapy. He is displaying vioelnt outbursts toward both parents. Can I claim he is emancipated under New York law? I am concerned that he may cause me financial or legal conswquences.

He has to be legally emancipated, by Court Order. It is not automatic.

I'm also in NY. This is a matter for your local Family Court.

You file a Petition for Emancipation.

Learn something new everyday. In Pennsylvania the law is you are an automatic adult at 18.
I always thought New York was ahead of us on that law.

NY is odd - some sites will tell you there is no procedure and it's automatic. Others say it is not.

"As we all know, in New York State, a child is not emancipated until the age of 21 except under certain unusual circumstances. The important thing to remember is emancipation is not automatic. You cannot emancipate a child, even when both parties agree to early emancipation or your case fits some of the conditions we will outline here. That's something that must be done by the Court.

Ideally, parties will define emancipation events in their separation agreement, or their stipulation of settlement. But again, everything is dependent upon Court approval. People frequently agree in their separation agreement that when a child is enrolled in a full time college and is pursuing an undergraduate degree, the age of emancipation is 22 years or the completion of four years of college, whichever comes first. Absent such an agreement, in all other instances, the age of emancipation is 21 unless certain other factors exist which may trigger an earlier emancipation upon application to a Court"

I would rather be legally safe than sorry.

And, yes, PA is certainly different.

I'm curious as to what you think emancipation will get you. At 18 he can sign contraxcts on his own. These contracts do not obligate you.

That's what I am wondering at 18 what do they need emancipated to be able to do, to what benefit? He sounds like he doesn't want to work to be able to afford signing for an apartment, etc... Maybe she is wanting to kick him out?

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... Ideally, parties will define emancipation events in their separation agreement, or their stipulation of settlement. But again, everything is dependent upon Court approval. People frequently agree in their separation agreement that when a child is enrolled in a full time college and is pursuing an undergraduate degree, the age of emancipation is 22 years or the completion of four years of college, whichever comes first. Absent such an agreement, in all other instances, the age of emancipation is 21 unless certain other factors exist which may trigger an earlier emancipation upon application to a Court"...

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I would guess (but cannot verify because you didn't post the link) the quoted language, concerning a student over 21 and under 22, has to do with divorcing or separating parents' duty to support their minor child; not emancipation as such. And it has nothing to do with a parent's liability for torts committed by that parent's child, with which OP also seems to be concerned.

Also, the writer of the blog apparently is confusing "emancipation" with becoming an adult (in the eyes of the law) by normal aging. One would have to research which age it is when one gains the legal capacity to contract.

Search engines are powerful. To paraphrase the most famous line from Treasure of the Sierra Madre, "Links, we don't need no stieenking links."

The article is here. As I suspected, Friedman describes herself as a "divorce and custody attorney". Clearly she wasn't thinking in terms of what is known as "emancipation", an action by a child to be accorded the rights of an adult.

This article says that, in the U.S. the age of majority is 18, except for Alabama, Nebraska, and Puerto Rico. It footnotes to this, which in turn links to this, citing the N.Y. law,

And from one of those links, more about emancipation New York Emancipation of Minor Law - Emancipation - Minors

This could go on forever. If there are other sites that tell a different story, well, that's how it is. I am hired to investigate the status of "people" on a semi-regular basis (maybe 4 times a year for a family law firm), if they are employed, if they are married, whatever the case may be, so that the parents may emancipate (or perhaps renounce parental responsibilities is a better phrase).

I still say if you are in NY look into the legal process or that child is going to do something which is going to cause the parents a great deal of pain, anguish and money.

But, again, if that's not the law, then that's not the law and Attorneys are building practices for no reason - and Judges are entertaining them, possibly because they have a small workload (not!).

"The State of New York does not have an emancipation statute available or a court proceeding to remove the disability of minority. Rather, the status of a youth will turn on the specific facts of the case. According to caselaw, in the State of New York “emancipation” has been defined as the renunciation of parental rights to a child. Gittleman v. Gittleman, 81 A.D. 2d 632, 438 N.Y.S. 2d 130 (2d Dept. 1981); Wayne County Dept. of Soc. Serv. v. Schultz, 81 Misc. 2d 603, 366 N.Y.S. 2d 845 (Fam. Ct. Wayne County 1975)."

So let the OP decide.