Now you have my interest! It's been a long time since I traversed the history of the subject, but I think it is quite true that in New York support matters were originally in fact only brought when the state's interest became involved. I was wondering just today in reviewing a petition for support brought against one of my clients why the standard form has a paragraph to the effect that "I have applied for support services to the Department of Social Services" when that clearly is not the case many times. Any case law that you know of determining the subject?
Here is a case that describes the courts first duty to determine whether there is a need, before they determine what amount is due: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=mn&vol=apppub%5C9610%5C997&invol=1