Lawyers Manual - Unified Court System

Matrimonial Actions 233
Finally, only an order of protection requested pursuant to Domestic
Relations Law § 252 can require that the party who is the object of the order
pay reasonable counsel fees and disbursements incurred by a person protected
by the order to obtain or enforce it. While this provision can be invoked by
either the Family Court or the Supreme Court if a matrimonial action is
pending, a Supreme Court justice will probably give a more generous award
than a Family Court judge. In the same way that Family Court judges might be
more liberal about issuing temporary orders of protection because they are more
accustomed to them, a Supreme Court justice is likely to award more generous
fees because counsel fee applications are more routine in that forum.
Court Conferences and Referrals
Parties in contested matrimonial actions are required to appear in court for
preliminary conferences, compliance conferences, and pre-trial conferences.
These conferences are often conducted outside of the formal courtroom in
smaller rooms. This means that a victim of domestic violence may well be put
in the position of sitting in very close proximity to her batterer. However,
Supreme Court justices are becoming more sensitive to issues of domestic
violence and may be amenable to an attorney’s request to waive the requirement
of a victim’s presence during all conferences or, at a minimum, agree to conduct
the conference in the courtroom with court officers present.
When custody and visitation are disputed issues, the Supreme Court is relying
more and more on court-employed social workers who meet simultaneously with
both parties, court-sponsored parental education programs, parenting plans and
mediation to assist in the resolution of these conflicts. Attorneys representing
victims of domestic violence in custody and visitation disputes in Supreme
Court should, with their client’s permission, promptly inform the court that their
client is a victim of domestic violence. The court system acknowledges that
mediation, parental education programs, parenting plans and meetings between
both parties and a social worker are generally inappropriate and potentially
dangerous where domestic violence has been present. The Office of the
Statewide Administrative Judge for Matrimonial Matters provides regular
training for matrimonial Supreme Court justices, which counsels judges not to
make referrals to such programs when the existence of domestic violence is
brought to their attention.