PARENTAGE COURT PROCEEDINGS

Once the Intended Parents and the gestational surrogate enter into a surrogacy agreement—and embryo(s) have been implanted—the participants should file a petition seeking a judgment holding that the Intended Parents are the legal parents of the child and extinguishing any custodial rights of the surrogate.  Such a proceeding may be brought in Supreme Court, Family Court, or Surrogate’s Court.  A parentage proceeding can be commenced prior to the child’s birth, but the judgment does not become effective until the birth.  In a parentage proceeding, courts will generally enforce surrogacy agreements that comply with the statutory requirements, or agreements that “substantially comply.”