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Family and Criminal Courts: Overlapping Considerations

By ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |
October 14, 2005

When accusations of domestic violence or child sexual abuse are brought in a family matter, the attorney for the accused party has a lot to think about. How to prove that no abuse occurred, that the client has reformed or that it was a one-time occurrence that won't happen again? Such issues can command a lot of the attorney's focus. But because matters surrounding spousal or child abuse accusations often are or will later become germane to a criminal case, family law attorneys have extra considerations apart from the outcome of the divorce or custody matter. How might criminal proceedings impact custody issues? Will the facts that come out in Family Court affect a later criminal prosecution? When admissions of criminal behavior are elicited in Family Court, do constitutional protections afforded to criminal defendants attach?

Although the family law attorney is generally not going to serve as counsel in a criminal trial, the overlap of family and criminal law in these situations demands attention. Following are some issues that have been addressed by and clarified by New York's courts in recent years. These cases offer some answers to questions that might (or might not) occur to the family law attorney whose client is accused of domestic violence, harassment or child abuse.

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