Announcements

In collaboration with other legal services providers and the California Department of Real Estate, we had the opportunity to contribute to the newly released guide on residential tenants’ and landlords’ rights and responsibilities. Our work focused on including the legal rights and responsibilities of survivors and landlords as they relate to survivors obtaining and maintaining safe housing.

Unfortunately, survivors of domestic violence face discrimination by landlords because landlords are not always informed of the special housing rights that survivors have in order to stay safe. We hope that this updated guide will curb the discrimination we have been seeing.

Domestic Violence Advocates supporting Indigenous Women in the U.S. celebrated last Friday, as the United States Supreme Court upheld expansive tribal court jurisdiction in Sharp v. Murphy, in which FVAP joined an amicus brief filed by National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center. This decision enables the Creek Nation in Oklahoma to prosecute non-Indians for domestic violence and other serious crimes committed on the vast majority of their tribal territory. This is a huge victory since current rates of violence against Indigenous women constitute a crisis.

We’re excited to share about a string of legal victories for survivors of domestic violence. We successfully obtained publication of 3 cases that will benefit domestic violence survivors in court. Issues covered in these cases include move out orders as part of restraining orders, overcoming the presumption that foster care is in the best interest of a child, and justifications for a restraining order because of coercive and controlling behavior.

Read the opinions via the links above, or you can read FVAP’s description of these cases in the Cases You Can Use section of our website.

The California Association of Certified Family Law Specialists just published an article written by FVAP Senior Managing Attorney, Shuray Ghorishi, and the Honorable Judge Mark Juhas in their journal! The article, California Penal Code 632: The Dilemma of Secretly Recorded Evidence in Family Law and Abuse Cases, explores the nuances of recorded communications in family court cases, including when a recording can and cannot be introduced into evidence.