Recently I found out that my sister forged my check and took a lot of money out from my checking account.
She told other family members when they heard about it that she just borrowed it and will pay back later. I know that I will never see that money again.
What can I do now?
I heard that I can get a lawyer to get my money back? But I can't afford to pay for the lawyer.
Please help. I am in NY.

You can go to the police and file charges against her. You don't have to pay the police or the DA.

You need to decide whether you want to send your sister to jail. She committed a criminal act and you can have her arrested for it.

You could sue her, possibly in small claims court, but collecting is not going to be easy.

Basically you either report her to the police, noify the bank of the fraud ASAP with a copy of the police report. If you don't wish to do that, you can consider it a gift to her and forget about ever seeing it again and hope she does not do it again.

You mean I just go to the police station to file the charge against my sister? She will go to jail?
Is there any other way to scare her so that she will pay me back- like get a lawyer to write her a letter. I want my money back but I don't want her to go to jail.

Tell her that if she doesn't pay you back immediately you will report it to the police. Give her a due date.

If you report it, the police will arrest her and if the prosecuter decides to prosecute, she will likely go to jail.

But the longer you wait, it may appear you were award of this and it was OK with you.

You could sue her for the money, but if she does not have it to pay back,

And of course "you don't want her to go to jail" why not ? And depending on the amount, it most likely would be probation esp if she paid you back