New York’s Discovery Laws Are Failing Survivors. The Legislature Must Act.
Behind closed doors across New York State, a disturbing pattern has emerged: survivors of domestic violence who bravely seek protection through our courts are being abandoned by a system meant to protect them. Technical paperwork violations — entirely unrelated to case facts — are resulting in dismissed cases and revoked orders of protection, leaving survivors exposed to their abusers. This devastating outcome wasn’t the intent of New York’s 2019 discovery reforms, but it has become their reality. As the Chief Executive Officer of Sanctuary for Families, an organization devoted to empowering survivors of domestic violence through comprehensive services and advocacy, and as a former New York State court judge, I recognize this as a profound systemic failure that’s placing vulnerable lives at risk.
How can we address this crisis? Governor Hochul’s proposed changes to discovery laws offer a crucial starting point. Right now, domestic violence cases are being dismissed over technicalities — such as failing to timely turn over a single document even when all the information in that piece of paper has already been provided to the accused, or not providing a roll call log or metadata when it has no relevance to the innocence or guilt of the defendant. Dismissing a case for these types of technical violations is a disproportionate response — especially when the consequence is that a survivor loses their order of protection. Such dismissals of domestic violence cases need to stop. When these cases are thrown out, our clients are left vulnerable to further harm — often without any recourse from the justice system.
Consider this case: In a forcible touching prosecution, a 67-year-old man was charged with groping his female neighbor, who was nearly 50 years younger than him. During the assault, the defendant also took pictures of the victim and after she and her family confronted him, they discovered he had been taking surreptitious pictures of the victim over the course of a month. After the prosecution began, the victim was issued an order of protection. Yet the case was dismissed because the Assistant District Attorney failed to acquire and provide a “pre-arraignment report” — an administrative document merely tracking the defendant’s whereabouts between arrest and court appearance, entirely irrelevant to the facts of the case. When told about the dismissal, the victim was extremely upset and worried about being left unprotected from the violent individual living right next door.
The impact extends beyond individual cases. Prosecutors drowning in discovery requirements are downgrading serious charges and diverting critical time away from survivor and witness engagement. Rather than building trust and addressing safety concerns, these attorneys spend hours tracking down administrative documents unrelated to the case merits. All of this has a real human cost: vulnerable survivors lose their protective orders and see their hope for justice vanish over paperwork technicalities.
Governor Hochul’s proposal is not a roll back of the much-needed 2019 discovery reform. That reform’s original purpose — ensuring fairness and transparency by preventing prosecutors from withholding crucial evidence until trial — remains vital. At Sanctuary for Families, we continue to support these principles, particularly because domestic violence survivors themselves too often become defendants in the criminal justice system.
What we must address are the reform’s unintended consequences. Our laws must strike a balance between fairness for defendants and safety for survivors. Dismissals should be reserved for cases where serious discovery violations truly compromise a defendant’s rights — not imposed automatically for minor or technical infractions. Governor Hochul’s proposal introduces proportional sanctions as a fair alternative to the current, often draconian, penalty of dismissal. Under her proposal, New York will continue to have the nation’s most transparent discovery laws without sacrificing justice for victims of violent crime.
As a former judge, I hold the principles of transparency and fairness as sacred. It is precisely because of these values — which must extend equally to victims and defendants—that I urge the legislature to adopt the Governor’s proposal. When cases are dismissed over administrative technicalities, we don’t just fail survivors — we endanger them by taking away the court-ordered protection they desperately need. New Yorkers experiencing domestic abuse and other forms of violence deserve better.
Hon. Judy Harris Kluger
Chief Executive Officer, Sanctuary for Families
Chair, New Yorkers for Fair and Just Discovery Laws
Former New York State Judge
