The Legal Aid Society hailed a decision by the state appellate court on Thursday to extend the protection of a “prompt evidentiary hearing” to New Yorkers involved in domestic violence cases before a temporary protection order can be levied against them that bars them from access to their home or their children, as reported by The New York Times.

The ruling comes as the result of the case of Shamika Crawford – who was left homeless for three months by a judge’s order as the result of a 2019 misdemeanor assault charge, only for the case to unravel after she had spent 88 days in her car separated from her children. Defense lawyers say prosecutors are too quick to pursue protection orders in domestic violence cases as a matter of course, with the resulting temporary orders upending lives, families, and jobs – even in cases that are later dismissed after the damage has already been done.

Attorneys from The Legal Aid Society – who had filed an amicus in support of this litigation – extolled the immediate impact of the ruling on their clients. Corey Stoughton, Attorney-in-Charge of the Criminal Defense Practice’s Special Litigation Unit, said that she had already heard of three cases where the decision was used as a basis for getting orders of protection lifted or modified to ease restrictions on the defendant.

“I got all these emails back from lawyers who said, ‘Oh I used it, it’s great!’” she said. “Three people went in, brandished the decision in front of the judge and ended up doing something that addressed the burden of the order of protection on one of their clients.”