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The number of domestic-assault cases tends to go up as the economy gets worse. The National Domestic Violence Hotline said that during a recent study, more than half of its callers reported a change in their household’s financial situation within the past year.

By the way, I recently became aware of a new state law in New York that prohibits employers from firing or refusing to hire domestic-violence or stalking victims, which is aimed at helping people gain the financial independence needed to separate from an abuser and take time off work to pursue legal cases.

New York Gov. David Paterson recently signed the legislation, which took effect immediately.

Each year in New York, an estimated 400,000 domestic incidents are reported to law enforcement, according to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. The New York governor has signed a few other bills this year on domestic violence. One requires campuses and colleges to provide incoming students with information on domestic violence and stalking prevention. Another exempts victims of domestic violence, stalking or another crime that jeopardizes their safety from the requirement that a name change be published.

Earlier this month, Paterson vetoed a bill that would have directed the secretary of state to accept mail and legal papers on behalf of domestic-violence victims who wanted their location kept confidential. The governor’s veto said he supports the goals of the legislation, but it would be too costly –- an estimated $1.4 million the first year and $900,000 in future years –- and potentially could require the state to accept and forward all mail.

The state estimated that up to 2,000 victims would register.

Sen. Ruth Hassell-Thompson, D-Mount Vernon, Westchester County, sponsored two domestic-violence bills that passed both houses but haven’t been acted on yet by the governor. One would prohibit that victims be required to contact their abusers as a condition of receiving public benefits and services. They often have to contact the abuser to obtain documents required during a screening process.

The second bill would require that court-appointed attorneys for children receive training on the effect of domestic violence, ensure that court records detail how domestic violence is taken into account in child-custody and visitation decisions, and allow prosecutors to charge alleged abusers with a second-degree harassment violation that couldn’t be sealed in court records. Cases often are pleaded down from misdemeanors to violations that can be sealed.

Hassell-Thompson’s bill includes several provisions that were requested by the governor. Paterson also proposed prohibiting discrimination against domestic-abuse victims in employment and housing.

A bill to prevent housing discrimination passed the Assembly but didn’t get through the Senate this year.

Legislation that passed only one house would have prohibited domestic-violence abusers from lawfully possessing a firearm, permitted victims to take up to 90 days in a 12-month period of unpaid leaves of absence from their job, and clarified that criminal orders of protection begin at sentencing and not conviction.