New York Legal Assistance Group Inc.
09/30/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/30/2025 08:46
Gothamist: A new NYC program offers free divorce lawyers to domestic violence victims
Gothamist: A new NYC program offers free divorce lawyers to domestic violence victims
- September 30, 2025
- 10:26 am
Under a new $2 million program proposed by City Council Member Julie Menin and passed into law by the New York City Council, hundreds of income-eligible survivors of domestic violence will get free legal assistance for divorce proceedings through NYLAG and other groups.
In many states, divorces are processed through family courts. But in New York, they instead go through the Supreme Court, a venue that requires a longer, more expensive and paperwork-heavy legal process. In most cases, New Yorkers are not entitled to free legal representation for divorce. And for domestic violence survivors struggling to afford housing and custody of their children, paying fees for a divorce lawyer is out of the question.
" There is a very stark difference in power and control in a relationship that domestic violence is present in, and that doesn't end when someone asks for a divorce," said Tuozhi Lorna Zhen, project director of the matrimonial project at the New York Legal Assistance Group, a free legal service organization that will get city funding under the program. When survivors aren't represented, she said, they can sign away rights and agree to unfavorable terms without knowing it.
Read the full story, originally published in Gothamist, on Sept. 30, 2025.
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