Family Court judges now have concurrent jurisdiction with criminal courts over crimes typically charged when people steal personal identities in order to use another person’s credit cards or make unauthorized financial transactions.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill Dec. 18 to expand §812(2)(a) of the Family Court Act to include the offenses along with crimes over which Family Court already has concurrent jurisdiction, such as attempted assault, sexual abuse, stalking or reckless endangerment. Family Law practitioners say it speeds the adjudication of family matters to allow some criminal charges to be handled by Family Court judges instead of through different judges in criminal courts.
