New York Family Courts, including
Queens Family Court, Manhattan Family Court, and Nassau County Family
Court handle a number of types of cases that either directly or
indirectly involve criminal-type accusations. More and more
frequently, New York Family Court will pursue cases against people
even when those people are being prosecuted for the exact same thing in
Criminal Court.
Examples of New York Family Court
matters that are often closely related to criminal cases include:
As a result, an important part of
defending criminal accusations against a client can often involve
navigating the client through New York Family Court. In cases
involving New York Family Court issues, the criminal defense lawyer
must either be familiar with New York Family Court himself, or be
willing to work closely with the lawyer handling the Family Court
matter. In many cases, the New York Family Court matter is so
closely linked to the Criminal Court case, that it makes sense for the
criminal defense lawyer to handle both matters.
Juvenile or Youth Cases in New York Family Court
Do not make the mistake of thinking
that criminal accusations prosecuted against youths in New York Family
Court cannot result in loss of freedom. A youth can be sentenced
to what amounts to prison for significant periods of time. A
youth can be incarcerated while his case proceeds through New York Family
Court. In addition, certain results in Family Court for
Juveniles can make them ineligible for Youthful Offender status in
criminal cases later on. This is often forgotten by those who do
not have experience with criminal type accusations in Family Court.
If a youth or juvenile is charged with
what would be a crime in Criminal Court, it is essential to obtain a
lawyer as quickly as possible. Criminal type accusations are
supposed to proceed with extreme speed in Family Court, theoretically
a matter of DAYS. The timetable with respect to criminal-like
accusations in Family Court is extremely small. Therefore, there
is no time to lose in getting an attorney as quickly as possible.
One of the first things that is
supposed to happen when a juvenile is charged with a crime is that the
case is supposed to be reviewed by the probation department with a
view toward "adjustment". Adjustment essentially means that the
probation department reviews the juvenile's case and recommends that
the juvenile obtain certain services, such as drug rehabilitation.
Occasionally adjustment can be explored as an option at the first
appearance in Family Court when the option was not explored initially
or not seriously explored initially.
After first appearance, the case is set
down for an extremely time compressed path ending in the fact-finding
(the Family Court phrase for a trial). Witnesses must be
interviewed and brought together quickly. Juvenile cases in
which there are real contested issues of fact can be extremely labor
intensive.
Sometimes, juveniles who are initially
prosecuted in Criminal Court can be transferred to New York Family
Court for prosecution. Many people see this as a victory to
avoid prosecution in criminal court. For a variety of reasons,
however, transferring a case to family court is not always something
that ends up benefiting the accused. Family court matters have a
way of lasting quite a long time and the end result in Family Court is
not always quite what everyone assumes it will be.
Child Abuse and Neglect Cases in New York
Family Court
Child abuse and neglect cases in New
York Family Court are technically not criminal cases, although more
and more frequently Criminal Court will prosecute parents accused in
Family Court. Child Abuse and Neglect Cases in New York Family
Court will typically be charged in criminal court as one or more of
the following crimes:
The stakes in New York Family Court
will be whether or not the parents will be allowed to continue to have
custody of the child. The stakes in the Criminal Court, however,
will be the parents' freedom. Sometimes, the existence of a
family court matter can be used to the advantage of the criminal case.
It may be possible for the criminal defense lawyer to use the Family
Court proceedings as a means to obtain discovery that would not
otherwise be available in a criminal case.
Being accused of child abuse and
neglect in New York Family Court can be more frustrating than being
prosecuted criminally, especially if you are innocent of the
accusations.
Defending accusations of child abuse
and neglect can represent one of the most challenging and emotionally
difficult prospects for any human being in our Court system.
Two realities make the defending of
accusation of child abuse and neglect extremely difficult.
First, unlike the criminal court
accusations, the Family Court accusations need only be proven by a
preponderance of the evidence. Preponderance of the evidence
means that the scales are tipped just 51%. In Criminal Court,
the accusations will have to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt,
which is an extremely high standard.
Second, unlike in the Criminal Court,
every case is a Bench Trial in Family Court. That means that a
judge will decide whether a person is guilty of the accusations, not a
jury. Most practitioners in criminal court willingly do bench
trials only very rarely. We have a jury system for a reason in
the United States. There is an amazing power in having cases
determined by people who owe nothing to the criminal justice system
and who, because they can remain anonymous, need not fear any backlash
for deciding a case a particular way. In abuse and neglect
cases, you have extremely emotionally charged and serious allegations.
A judge who makes the finding that a child was not abused or neglected
is making a potentially politically unpopular decision. This is
not to say that any judge in New York Family would necessarily ever
respond to such political pressure, but this can be fear of the people
accused as well as their lawyers.
Also, resisting the pressure to concede
responsibility for the accusations of abuse or neglect can result in a
longer time before there is an ultimate resolution of the case and
therefore a longer time before the accused and the child can be
reunited (assuming you are successful at a bench trial on a
preponderance of evidence standard). Many people feel as if
conceding responsibility is the only way to get their children back as
quickly as possible.
These factors can make it extremely
emotionally difficult for the people accused. The Family Court
supposedly has the goal of bringing the families back together.
But when cases are referred for concurrent criminal prosecution it is
hard to see how the Family Court is attempting to make this happen.
A parent who is victimized by a child
making false allegations of abuse or neglect may be hard pressed to
want to try to work everything out and be together after being
arrested and accused of a felony in criminal court. In fact, we
frequently advise people who are victimized by a false allegations
NEVER TO BE AROUND THE FALSE ACCUSER EVER AGAIN. Once a person
has tasted the power of falsely accusing someone and realizes how easy
it is to get people arrested, the person can never be trusted again.
As criminal defense lawyers we have represented many people who,
hoping against hope that a false accuser would never do it again,
nevertheless find themselves accused falsely multiple times.
After referring cases of abuse or
neglect to criminal court for criminal prosecution, the Family Court
personnel are often perplexed when parents express reluctance to try
to work it all out and have the family be together again.
Child Custody, Child Visitation, and Child
Support in New York Family Court
Child custody and child visitation
cases are frequently related to criminal cases where false allegations
of criminal conduct are brought as leverage in custody and visitation
disputes between parents. Likewise, disputes between parents
over child support may also lead to false allegations of criminal
conduct.
