NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A9628
SPONSOR: Weinstein TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the family court act and the criminal procedure law, in
relation to notification of rights of victims of domestic violence in
criminal and family court proceedings
This is one in a series of measures being introduced at the request of
the Chief Administrative Judge upon the recommendation of his Family
Court and Rules Advisory Committee.
The amendments to Family Court Act § 812 and Criminal Procedure Law §
530.11, contained in the comprehensive domestic violence statute enacted
in 1994 (L. 1994, c. 222, 224), included important protections for
alleged victims of domestic violence. The statutes placed a collective
responsibility upon law enforcement, prosecutors and the courts to
ensure that victims would be made aware of their rights, of the expecta-
tions they may have to obtain assistance from both the civil and crimi-
nal justice systems and of the remedies and resources available to them.
The notice must be in writing in both English and Spanish and must
recite the statutory language verbatim. Law enforcement has provided
the notice as part of the victims' copy of the "Domestic Incident
Report" and the court system has made the notices available in eight
languages. See www.nycourts.gov. However, the required language in the
notice is overly complex and, particularly where alleged victims of
domestic violence are unrepresented, has impeded the statutory goal of
making the justice system fully responsive to the needs of victims of
abuse.
This measure would amend Family Court Act § 812 and Criminal Procedure
Law § 530.11 to substantially simplify the language contained in the
notice to victims while, at the same time, expanding the breadth of
information it provides. The measure adds flexibility by providing that
the notice use substantially the language provided and that it be made
available at minimum in plain English and Spanish. As the chart below
indicates, using five generally accepted means of measurement of the
grade level of the language used, the notice proposed by this measure
averages 8.7 (middle school) in grade level compared to the 14.0
(college level) average of the existing notice and its readability score
is substantially higher than that of the current notice:{1}
MEASUREMENT FORMULA EXISTING NOTICE PROPOSED NOTICE
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 13.9 7.7
Gunning-Fog Score 17.7 11.5
Coleman-Liau Index 11.5 9.1
SMOG Index 13.3 8.4
Automated Readability Index 13.8 6.9
Average Grade Level 14.0 8.7
TEXT STATISTICS
Character Count 2363 3068
Syllable Count 820 1028
Word Count 510 726
Sentence Count 19 43
Characters per Word 4.6 4.2
Syllables per Word 1.6 1.4
Words per Sentence 26.8 16.9
Readability Score 43.6 69.9
(Flesch-Kincaid; scale: 1 to 100)
The language in the proposed notice mirrors the basic principles of
writing in plain English, in particular, the use of short, declarative
sentences, use of personal pronouns, use of active voice, avoidance of
legal terms and organization into easy-to-read bullets. See, e.g.,
Federal.Plain Language Guidelines (www.plainlanguage.gov); Writing for
Self: represented Litigants: A Guide for Maryland Courts and Legal
Services Providers (Md. Access to Justice Commission, Nov., 2012). As
indicated on the web-site www.writeclearly.org:
Roughly 50% of native English-speaking Americans are unable to read at
the 8th grade level; another 20% are only functionally literate.
Limited English speakers find it particularly difficult to navigate
legal texts that contain strange words and describe unfamiliar proce-
dures. These readers are substantially disadvantaged in accessing legal
information.
Research has demonstrated that where documents are too complex for read-
ers, they generally stop reading. See RJ.H. DuBay, "Principles of Read-
ability, Readability and Reader Persistence," at 30 (National Adult
Literacy Database, 2004: www.nald.ca).
Utilization of plain English is particularly important for victims of
domestic violence, who may be experiencing trauma as a result of the
alleged abusive incident or incidents, trauma that itself makes it more
difficult for victims to understand their options and to make the often
difficult decisions required at the outset of abuse cases. Significant-
ly, victims are most often not represented by counsel either at the
point of a law enforcement response to a call to 911 or upon their first
appearances in Family Court seeking temporary orders.of protection.
Noting the high incidence of unrepresented litigants in family law-re-
lated matters in New York State courts, the 2010, 2014 and 2015 Reports
to the Chief Judge of the Task Force (now Permanent Commission) to
Expand Access to Civil Legal Services in New York included simplifi-
cation of forms among the recommendations. In drastically reducing the
complexity of the statutorily-required notice to victims of domestic
violence, this measure would fulfill those recommendations and would
enhance the capacity of the justice system to respond effectively to
victims' needs.
This measure, which would have no fiscal impact on the State, would take
effect 90 days after it shall become a law.
2016 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
OCA 2016-82
Senate 6956 (Sen. Serino) (referred to Children & Families)
1 See www.readability-score.com (visited Jan. 17, 2016).
