In an interview last week, FVAP’s Legal Director Nancy K.D. Lemon shared with KQED reporters why former Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ restrictions on asylum for survivors of domestic violence threaten women’s rights. In 2018, Sessions refused to provide asylum to a survivor of domestic violence from El Salvador who had been abused by her ex-husband for over a decade, deciding that domestic violence is a private or personal crime and not a qualifying reason for asylum. However, violence against women is a deep-rooted societal problem that demands government intervention, and it’s common for survivors to come to the U.S. seeking refuge from abuse because law enforcement in their home country would not provide help. In fact, FVAP is currently representing a survivor of domestic violence who faced this same barrier to safety before coming to the U.S. We are hopeful that the new administration will loosen the current restrictions so that survivors fleeing abuse can get the safety and justice they deserve. Read more in KQED’s article here.
Announcements
FVAP Legal Victory Helps Survivors Renew Restraining Orders and Prevent Litigation Abuse
Today we received news that our request for partial publication of the case In re Marriage of Carlisle was granted! The published opinion states that trial courts have jurisdiction to renew domestic violence restraining orders (DVRO) even when the original DVRO is pending on appeal. This means survivors of abuse can still be protected, even if the restrained party in the case files an appeal of the original restraining order.
This publication is also a victory because it clearly prevents abusers from trying to use appeals of DVROs to postpone renewals of restraining orders, which is litigation abuse.
Annual Family Law Appellate Cases Training Happening Today!
Today we’re doing our annual Recent CA Family Law Appellate Cases training for members of California Partnership to End Domestic Violence. Stay tuned for a recording of this training, which will be accessible through our Legal Resource Library in the coming weeks!
FVAP joins legal services community to work with CA Dept. of Real Estate to publish DV-informed guide on tenants’ and landlords’ rights and responsibilities
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.
New Report on Convening of CA Domestic Violence Service Providers
In collaboration with the Los Angeles Center for Law & Justice (LACLJ), last June we facilitated two working sessions with domestic violence service providers in California to determine the impact of changes made to domestic violence laws in the past five years and to identify areas of improvement to focus on in the future. We were glad to find improvements in court outcomes, for example, but there are still key areas that make getting justice harder for survivors, such as a need for better language access and judicial education on domestic violence issues.
Read the report to learn more: Pathways Pre-conference Report 2019
Legal Victory for Indigenous Women in Oklahoma
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.
String of Requests for Publication Granted to Benefit Survivors!
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.
