Specialized domestic violence courts are designed to improve victim safety and enhance defendant accountability. The Center for Court Innovation helps jurisdictions plan and operate domestic violence courts both in New York and around the country. The Center for Court Innovation offers free technical assistance, supported by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women, to jurisdictions across the country interested in creating or expanding existing domestic violence court projects. The Center helped establish New York’s first domestic violence court in 1996 in Brooklyn, handling felony-level cases. The Brooklyn Domestic Violence Court has served as a model for nearly 30 domestic violence courts in New York, including courts in the Bronx, Queens, and Westchester Counties, the city of Buffalo, and smaller cities like Clarkstown and Binghamton. A more recent development in New York State is the integrated domestic violence court in which a single judge handles criminal domestic violence cases and related family issues, such as custody, visitation, civil protection orders, and matrimonial actions. Today, there are nearly 300 courts nationwide that have special processing mechanisms for domestic violence cases.

Elizabeth “Libby” Pollard Hines, Judge, Domestic Violence Docket, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Judge Elizabeth “Libby” Pollard Hines presides over a specialized docket dedicated to domestic violence cases in the 15th District Court in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and is a member of the National Domestic Violence Court Technical Assistance Consultancy Team for the Center for Court Innovation. She received the National Center for State Courts’ 2008 Distinguished Service Award and was recently re-elected to the board of directors of the American Judges Association. She spoke with Robert V. Wolf in March 2009 during the Center for Court Innovation’s Integrated Domestic Violence Court Open House about her work with domestic violence cases.

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The Challenges of Differentiating among Domestic Violence Offenders
Ronald B. Adrine, a judge since 1982, is the administrative and presiding judge of the Cleveland Municipal Court and also oversees Cleveland's Dedicated Domestic Violence Docket. In this podcast, he talks about the origins of the docket and the challenges of differentiating between defendants who are habitual batterers and defendants who are one-time perpetrators (such as those acting in self defense). He also discusses the development of the Deferred Judgement Initiative, an innovative screening process that identifies first-time defendants considered unlikely to offend again, allowing them to avoid a domestic violence conviction.

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Spotlight on... Victim Safety
One of the guiding principles of domestic violence courts—misdemeanor, felony, and integrated—is victim safety. Complainants in domestic violence cases have unique needs and concerns; they are often dependent economically on their assailant, have children in common, and may be threatened by the defendant or the defendant’s relatives during the course of a case. Therefore, the prompt and effective provision of services to victims is of paramount importance.

What follows are key principles for ensuring victim safety gleaned from the operation of domestic violence courts in New York:

Provide victims with immediate access to advocates.
Every victim should be given immediate access to an advocate who can provide safety planning and explain court procedures. Comprehensive victim advocacy should include access to counseling, job training, immigration services, child services, and other programs aimed at improving self-sufficiency. Ideally, a victim should remain paired with her advocate throughout the case (i.e., from police response through post-disposition).

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