Procedures for the Registration of Out of state Domestic Violence Restraining Orders

Procedures for the Registration of Out of state Domestic Violence Restraining Orders

The Conference of Family Division Managers, the Family Practice Division and the Automated Trial Court Systems Unit have developed procedures to implement the registration of out of state domestic violence orders in the Family Division and the DV central registry. The Information Systems Division has completed the programming of this procedure in FACTS. This process is scheduled to become active in FACTS on 5/8/00. These procedures have been reviewed by the State Domestic Violence Working Group and the Conference of Family Division Managers, and approved by the Conference of Family Division Presiding Judges. The procedures were included, in draft form, in the New Jersey presentation to the Mid-Atlantic VAWA conference on Full Faith and Credit issues.

This memorandum includes:

! Procedures for Family Division staff to follow in the registration of the orders; ! FACTS codes and procedures. (part of the FACTS FV Docket users guide distributed by the

Automated Trial Court Systems Unit); ! Certification forms for incoming orders and for outgoing New Jersey orders.

The attached procedure has been modified from prior drafts in order to better accommodate the out of state order’s expiration date in FACTS and recent discussions with other Mid Atlantic states concerning the practice of certification for Restraining Orders. The Automated Trial court Systems Unit conducted training in April to implement this process. The trainees from each vicinage were provided the updated FV Docket users guide. Please advise Mary M. DeLeo if you have any questions concerning this procedure.

These procedures are labeled as interim pending the development of a complete Foreign order process within the FACTS system, and eventually every state’s inclusion of their Restraining Orders in a National Central Registry which is anticipated by July, 2002. These procedures will allow for out of state Domestic violence orders to be placed on to the system, with a minimum ofsystem changes.

The primary benefit to registration for the victim is that the order will be on the statewide DV registry to which police throughout the state will have access on an immediate, round-the-clock basis.

These procedures will:

! Establish these registered cases without adding new cases to the Family Division statistical report;

! Accommodate the expiration date of out of state orders; ! Identify out of state orders to users, particularly law enforcement users of the DV registry; ! Not permit an out of state order to be reopened or modified; ! Still require that Full Faith and Credit be honored by Law Enforcement and the Courts on

those orders which have not been registered.

Procedures

1. The victim (plaintiff) who elects to register an out of state restraining order will present the order at a county Family Division intake or domestic violence unit. The victim/plaintiff will complete a Victim Information Form and complete an Out of State certification form (attached).

2. The Family Division DV or central reception staff member will review the order, certification and victim information form. The staff member will call the issuing court, immediately, or within one business day. The staff member will fax the order and certification form to the issuing court and request confirmation of the order as presented by return fax. The Family Division Manager, or if so designated by the Division Manager, the FV Team Leader, may review the contact with the issuing court to resolve questions concerning confirmation.

3. Upon confirmation, the staff member will complete the confirmation form, which will allow for the establishment and docketing of the case on FACTS.

4. The establishment process will include:

! A new initiating document, the OUT OF STATE DV RO, entered in the initiating document field, will be combined with a case status reason code that identifies the case as an Out of State Order;

! The field MUNICIPALITY OF OFFENSE becomes a required field with a change from numeric to alphanumeric to allow the state to be identified, e.g. 9901 for an Out of State Order from Pennsylvania (attached FACTS procedure-1a);

! All OUT OF STATE DV RO initiating document cases would be ignored in the statistical count, and cannot be reopened.

5. The expiration date will be identified in the system, and appear on the registry based on the use of a Relief code that is unique to this case type. The expiration date will be entered by the user and appear in the registry in the COMMENTS field (attached 2c).

6. Upon completion of case establishment, the order will be stamped with a statement confirming that it has been verified and registered as of the case establishment date and providing the NJ docket number. The victim/plaintiff should be provided with the order, a copy faxed to the police departments identified by the victim/plaintiff, and a copy placed in

2

the Family Division file that was created when the system assigned the New Jersey number as part of the registration process.

7. The Attorney General’s Guidelines to Law Enforcement Officers state that the registration of an order is not required in order to enforce the order. We have been assured by the Division of Criminal Justice that Full Faith and Credit will be emphasized in all police training to continue protection of all victims, regardless of whether they have sought the additional assurance of recording their out of state order with New Jersey

Outgoing Orders

All Final and Temporary restraining orders contain language concerning the Full Faith and Credit qualification of those orders under the Federal VAWA statute. As a further aid to victims, the federal VAWA office has promulgated a form of Certification, which, if completed by the issuing court, is intended to encourage the enforcement of these orders in all states. Attached is a form of this certification with the New Jersey Family Part caption. At this time, it is not a recommended practice to provide this certification for orders issued on a routine basis. Rather, the form should be completed upon the request of a victim, or another state’s court or law enforcement agency that has requested verification of the New Jersey FRO.

The recommended practice is for the court to provide the victim with a certified true copy of the FRO, with a raised seal, upon request of the victim.