WHITE PLAINS, N. Y. -- The Pace Women's Justice Center will celebrate the 3rd Anniversary of the Family Court Legal Program on Wednesday, November 6^th at 9:00 a.m. in the second floor Jurors' lounge of the White Plains Family Court, 111 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. The Honorable Judge Francis A. Nicolai, Administrative Judge, Ninth District, and the Honorable Joan O. Cooney, Supervising Family Court Judge, will offer remarks at the breakfast.

The Pace Family Court Legal Program, based in the White Plains and Yonkers Family Courts, provides free legal services to victims of domestic violence for temporary orders of protection, child custody, and child support. Pace Women’s Justice Center staff attorneys and Pace Law School students annually serve more than 900 victims of domestic violence. In three years of operation, the program has provided counsel to approximately 2,500 victims of domestic violence.

Since the advent of the program in 1999, the amount of child support collected by the Westchester Child Support Collection Unit for clients who access Yonkers and White Plains Family Courts for protection orders has doubled. The County estimates that the Child Support Collection Unit partner at the courthouse has produced more than $1,500,000 in child support since the program began. Return of women to court to obtain permanent orders of protection has also increased by approximately 50% since inception of the program and an unprecedented 70 to 80% of victims convert their temporary orders of protection into permanent orders of protection. In July, September, and October of 2002, the number of Family Court Legal Program clients doubled, further demonstrating the ever-increasing need for these community services.

The program has proven to be a uniquely effective cooperative effort to assist Westchester County’s thousands of domestic violence victims and their children. According to Executive Director Vicki Lutz, the Pace program would be impossible without participating partners, which include the Westchester County Office for Women, Westchester/Putnam Legal Services, Mental Health Association of Westchester, the Westchester County's Probation Department, the Westchester County Office of Child Support Enforcement, and the Westchester women's shelters. "All of these organizations join us in providing a broad spectrum of support for victims of domestic violence and their children."

For more information about the Family Court Legal Program or the Pace Women's Justice Center visit the web-site at www.law.pace.edu/pwjc, or call: (914) 422-4069.

Founded in 1976, Pace Law School is located in White Plains, N.Y., 20 miles north of New York City. The School offers the J.D. program for full-time, and part-time day, and evening students. Its post-graduate program includes the LL.M. and S.J.D. degrees in Environmental Law and an LL.M. in Comparative Legal Studies. Pace has one of the nation's top-rated environmental law programs and its Clinical Education Program also is nationally ranked, offering clinics in domestic violence prosecution, securities arbitration, criminal justice, and disability rights.