Special Commission on the Future of the New York State Courts

safety and facilitate access to specialized services. 130 The IDV
concept was first implemented in 2001 and took the efforts of the
Domestic Violence Courts a step further – assigning one judge to
handle a domestic violence victim’s related civil and criminal
cases. 131 In approximately twenty percent of criminal domestic
violence cases, there is a related matter in another court.
“I remember one occasion in
the Bronx IDV court where the
lawyers presented us with two
conflicting orders; an order
from the Criminal Court mandating
that the mother stay out
of the home and a Family
Court order of protection
against the father. The children
were standing there with
no one to take care of them. As
an integrated Supreme Court
we were able to modify the orders
so that one parent could
care for the children in the
home.”
– Former IDV Court
Attorney
Under the IDV “one family/one-judge” model, both
criminal and civil matters, such as custody, visitation, civil
protection orders and matrimonial actions, are handled by one
judge, rather than various judges in different courts. In this way,
the IDV Courts simplify the process for litigants and allow them
to overcome the artificial jurisdictional barriers of New York’s
complex trial court structure. Moreover, this approach promotes
better and more consistent judicial decision-making and requires
fewer court appearances by the victim. Like Domestic Violence
Courts, IDV Courts ensure intensive offender monitoring and
accountability and enhanced access to services for victims and
their families. 132
The basis for IDV Court jurisdiction is the
interrelationship between the family, criminal and matrimonial
matters that can face a single family. The threshold requirement
for entry into IDV Court is a criminal case involving domestic
violence and a case in Family Court or a matrimonial case in
Supreme Court (or both) where the cases have a party in
common. IDV Courts may also take Family Court cases together
with Supreme Court cases, even if there is no criminal case
pending, where the cases have at least one party in common,
provided there are allegations of domestic violence in at least one
case. 133 Once eligible cases are identified, there are protocols in
place to transfer them at the earliest stage from the originating
courts to the IDV Court.
130
CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE JUDGE JONATHAN LIPPMAN, TWENTY-EIGHTH
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE CHIEF ADMINISTRATOR OF THE COURTS FOR CALENDAR
YEAR 2005, at 18 (hereinafter “TWENTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT”).
131
Id.
132
Id. at 18.
133
See N.Y. STATE UNIFIED COURT SYS., INTEGRATED DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
COURT, MODEL IDV COURT 2 (2006).
64
A Court System for the Future, February 2007