Philip Katz/courtesy photo As Family Court Went Virtual Amid COVID-19, Assigned-Counsel Lawyers Worked Overtime to Help Abuse Victims
Many victims "have sheltered in with their abuser" because of the pandemic, said Sarah Tigary, the state's Assigned Counsel Association president and a Family Court lawyer based in Queens. "They sometimes call us from their car, or from a supermarket" trying to find help, and "they say 'you can't call me, I have to call you, because I am living with my abuser.'"
August 26, 2020 at 05:48 PM
9 minute read
It was early June when Philip Katz, a Family Court practitioner who works via the court system's assigned-counsel program for the indigent, got the call about a battered 18-year-old woman who needed emergency protection from her boyfriend.
The COVID-19 pandemic still had New York City in its grip. And Katz and dozens of his assigned-counsel colleagues, private attorneys who usually get paid $75 an hour for their Family Court lawyering, had been working extra hours since April to help their clients navigate a new pandemic-driven, virtual court process. Day after day, they'd been trying to win for the abused emergency court orders aimed at keeping their violent partners away.
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