Lawyers Manual - Unified Court System

Advocating for Youth in Domestic Violence Proceedings 395
and, while they may consult the victim, they do not represent her and do not
always request the relief she wants.
Victims in the criminal justice process may feel torn; some may not want
an abuser to be jailed or punished but may simply want the court system to find
a way to make the violence stop. Typically when the option of a batterer’s
intervention program as part of a plea agreement comes up, a victim may
express interest in the hope that the program will eliminate her partner’s
battering behavior. You should tell your client that there is no evidence that the
programs stop battering behavior. A false sense of security and optimism about
rehabilitating a batterer can be dangerous.
Civil Relief
Potentially less intimidating than the Criminal Court, the civil courts are an
alternative for your young client if she is eligible to petition the Family Court.
However, only a young person married to, or divorced from, her batterer, or
whose abuser is also the parent of her child will have access to a civil order of
protection in New York State. 14
Family Courts have the advantage of offering a young victim far greater
resources and autonomy than the criminal system. The process of speaking to
a clerk in plain clothes and filing a petition in Family Court, rather than
approaching a uniformed police officer and filing a criminal complaint, may be
more appealing to many young people. In Family Court, the survivor of abuse is
a party to the case, rather than a witness. She determines whether and when to
bring or drop her case against the abuser; she can pursue specific protections or
oppose sanctions against the batterer that she finds unacceptable.
Family Court Process
Motion papers necessary to request an order of protection do not require the
petitioner to provide her age, and, though law guardians are customarily assigned
to young people in family court proceedings, minors may initiate a family court
proceeding without legal counsel. 15 Nonetheless, young people who approach the
Family Court for assistance without representation may meet resistance from
family court staff unaware that minors may file for orders of protection without
an attorney. 16 Some may confuse the Social Services Act — which defines a
victim of domestic violence as someone “over sixteen years of age” — with
provisions that apply to Family Court. 17