One of the most frequently occurring crimes in all of New York City and New York State is Domestic Violence. In fact Queens, Manhattan (New York County), Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Long Island including Suffolk County and Nassau County all have court rooms exclusively dedicated to handling Domestic Violence cases. Each Domestic Violence lawyer in our office understands the procedures in these Courts. Many courts now have an integrated Domestic Violence part. Specifically, they have created a Courtroom that merges Criminal Court and Family Court. Officially there is no crime of Domestic Violence in New York. The some of the actual crimes that constitute a Domestic violence offense are assault, rape, menacing, stalking, sex abuse, kidnapping, harassment, aggravated harassment and the violence can even rise to murder. When the criminal acts occur between people living in the same dwelling and have an intimate relationship or a familial connection or blood relationship the criminal court considers this Domestic Violence (for Criminal and Family Court purposes the parties must have a legal or blood relationship or share a child in common.) The IDV Part C the Integrated Domestic Violence Courtroom combines more standard forms of criminal punishments with newer theories that include counseling, anger management programs as well as good parenting classes in order to give the parties the tools to resolve their disputes permanently. The purpose of the IDV part is to alleviate the overlap and common issues such as orders of protection that may need to be adjusted along with custody and visitation issues if children are involved. It does make sense for one judge to handle the case to avoid bureaucratic snafus and to promote judicial economy.

The Domestic Violence lawyers in our office try to encourage the New York Judges and Office of the District Attorney away from conventional forms of criminal punishment while simultaneously advocating for our client's innocence. Whether you have been charged with rape, menacing, stalking, aggravated harassment, assault, sexual assault, sex abuse, sodomy, endangering the welfare of a child or even murder, each New York Domestic Violence Lawyer in our office will vigorously defend you against the criminal charge. Call the New York criminal lawyers of Stephen Bilkis & Associates at 1-800-NY-NY-Law for a free consultation. Each New York Domestic Violence lawyer is ready to defend you and is backed by the experience and knowledge to help you in the most difficult of cases, yours. Again for a free consultation call us at 1-800-NY-NY-Law.