New York Family Offense Law and Orders of Protection (FCA § 812): Who Can File and for What

If a family or household member has hurt you, threatened you, or made you afraid for your safety, New York’s family offense law lets you ask the Family Court for an order of protection. The law is specific about two things: the acts that count as a family offense, and the relationships that let a person file.

You do not need a lawyer to ask the court for protection, and you do not need to wait for the police. A family offense petition can be filed in the Family Court in any of the five boroughs, and the court can issue a temporary order of protection the same day in many cases.

This page covers who can file under Family Court Act § 812, which acts the law treats as family offenses, the choice between Family Court and Criminal Court, and what an order of protection can do.

Who Can File a Family Offense Petition for an Order of Protection in New York?

People in specific relationships with the person who harmed them. Family Court Act § 812 limits family offense cases to acts between members of the same family or household, and the law defines that group to include:

• People related by blood or marriage: family members in the traditional sense.
• People formerly married to each other: an ex-spouse still qualifies.
• People who have a child in common: whether or not they were ever married or lived together.
• People who are or have been in an intimate relationship: which does not have to be sexual, and which the court evaluates from the nature and length of the relationship.

If your situation does not fit one of these categories, the Family Court may not be the right forum, and a different protective route may apply. Our orders of protection attorneys help sort that out quickly, because filing in the wrong place costs time a frightened person does not have.

What Acts Count as a Family Offense in New York Family Court Under FCA § 812?

A specific list of offenses, not every bad act. The law treats certain defined offenses as family offenses when they happen between qualifying family or household members. They include disorderly conduct, harassment, aggravated harassment, stalking, menacing, reckless endangerment, assault and attempted assault, criminal mischief, sexual misconduct and certain sexual abuse offenses, strangulation, and criminal obstruction of breathing, among others.

What ties the list together is conduct that threatens a person’s safety or peace within a family or household. A single qualifying act can be enough to bring a petition. Our attorneys help a petitioner frame the conduct accurately, because the petition has to connect what happened to the offenses the law recognizes.

Should You File in Family Court or Criminal Court for an Order of Protection in New York?

You can choose either, or both, and they do different things. New York gives a person the option of Family Court, Criminal Court, or both at the same time. Family Court is a civil forum where you, the petitioner, ask for protection, and the focus is your safety, not putting the other person in jail. Criminal Court involves the district attorney and can lead to criminal charges and prosecution.

Many people start in Family Court because they keep control of the case and the goal is protection. Some matters belong in Criminal Court, or in both at once. The right choice depends on what happened and what you need, and it is worth talking through before you file.

What Can a New York Family Court Order of Protection Actually Do?

It can set enforceable limits on the other person’s contact and conduct. Depending on the facts, an order of protection can direct the other person to stay away from you, your home, your job, and your children’s school, to stop all contact or harassment, and to refrain from specific conduct. A temporary order can issue early in the case to hold the line while it is pending, and a final order can follow after the court hears the matter.

An order of protection is a court order with real force behind it. Violating one can carry serious consequences for the person it restrains. What an order contains, and how long it lasts, depends on the facts the court finds, so the strength of the petition and the evidence behind it matters.

What Evidence Helps in a New York Family Offense Case?

The record of what actually happened. Family offense cases are often proven with the same everyday material that documents any family conflict: threatening texts and voicemails, photographs of injuries or damage, medical records, police reports, and the accounts of people who saw or heard what occurred. Saved messages and contemporaneous notes carry weight because they are hard to dispute.

Our attorneys help a client preserve and organize that record, and prepare for the appearance where the petitioner has to testify to what happened. We treat these cases with the seriousness they deserve, because for the person who filed, the order is about being able to sleep at night.

If you are in immediate danger, call 911. The New York State Domestic and Sexual Violence Hotline is available around the clock at 1-800-942-6906, and it is confidential.

Talk to Cedeño Law Group About a New York Order of Protection

Your safety is the case. Cedeño Law Group helps New York family members seek and defend orders of protection in the Family Court, and prepares every petition as if a judge will read it closely. Call us, and let’s get the facts in front of the court.

Updated 2026. This page reflects New York’s family offense law under Family Court Act § 812 as in effect in 2026. It is general information, not legal advice. If you are in immediate danger, call 911.

For more laws, visit our New York Divorce and Family Laws page.