Our client Isabelle Latour was successful in defending against her ex-husband’s multiple (we lost count after 4) appeals. The Washington Court of Appeals held that Washington’s new statute preventing abusive litigation, ch 26.51 RCW, is constitutional, and survives separations of powers and due process challenges. Washington is one of the first states nationwide with a strong abusive litigation statute, so this facial constitutional challenge to the statute could have had far-reaching implications and hindered states’ ability to try to curtail abusive litigation, which abusers use to continue their financial abuse and power and control over survivors of DV.
The court further found that, as applied to Isabelle’s case, there was substantial evidence to find she was a victim of domestic violence, and the abuser’s litigation was done to harass, intimidate, and maintain contact with Isabelle. Isabelle is very happy (but also expecting Sean to continue to litigate this matter). The court’s opinion is unpublished, so we will be pursuing publication.
