Why it rarely stays one case
In New York, domestic violence is not a single crime. The charges are ordinary offenses such as assault, harassment, menacing, criminal mischief, and strangulation, treated differently because of the relationship between the people involved. The same incident can lead to a criminal case brought by the prosecutor and a family offense petition in Family Court, and the two can move forward at the same time before different judges. A divorce or custody case may already be underway or may follow, and what is said in one courtroom can surface in another. Housing, employment, and, for people who are not citizens, immigration questions often sit behind all of it.
The orders arrive before the facts are tested
Orders of protection are commonly issued at the very start, and they can require you to leave a shared home and keep away from your children until a judge says otherwise. Keep every order you receive and read each one closely. If more than one court has issued an order, you are bound by each of them, which in practice means following whichever term is more restrictive until a lawyer has compared them. Do not contact the other person to smooth things over, even if they ask you to, and do not pass messages through relatives. Federal law also restricts firearm possession while certain protective orders are in effect and after some convictions, and New York orders can separately require firearms to be surrendered.
Mapping it out in a first conversation
We start by listing every proceeding that exists or is likely, which court each one sits in, and which dates are already fixed. We talk about where you can live and how you can see your children lawfully while the orders stand, and whether asking a court to change a term is realistic. We look at what evidence probably exists already, such as calls to police, photographs, messages, and medical records, and what should be preserved now. If you are not a citizen, or you hold a professional license or a firearm license, we raise that early, because those consequences can turn on how the case is resolved.
