Family Violence Appellate Project

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announcements

Pride 2022

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FVAP Celebrates Pride Month

June is Pride month, a time to celebrate and support the LGBTQIA2S+ community.

The origins of Pride date back to June 28, 1969, when police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village, NY, which resulted in a series of riots. Numerous rights groups were formed, and the community demanded the establishment of safe spaces where LBGTQIA2S+ people could live openly without fear of retribution. Thirty years after the Stonewall Riots, President Bill Clinton officially recognized Pride Month in 1999; this month symbolizes liberation and is publicly honored in many countries worldwide.

FVAP celebrates the progress the LGBTQIA2S+ movement has made over the years, from the resistance of oppression during the Stonewall Riots to the passing of legislation supporting LGBTQIA2S+ civil rights. Still, there is much work to be done. Despite advances in equality since that time, threats to the LGBTQIA2S+ community abound: so far this year, nearly 240 anti-LGBTQIA2S+ bills have been filed, primarily targeting trans people and, in particular, trans youth. While 2021 marked the highest number of anti-trans legislation in the history of the US, 2022 is slated to break that record.  Pride Month reminds us that written in history are the many accomplishments made by the LQBTQIA2S+ community, from advocacy to the passing of unprecedented civil rights legislation. FVAP joins those committed to human rights in honoring this month as an opportunity for reflection, celebration and renewed commitment to continue progressing forward in the spirit of advocacy and allyship to combat anti-LGBTQIA2S+ legislation.

FVAP Honors Juneteenth

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FVAP Honors Juneteenth

Juneteenth, or Freedom Day, is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in America as it was historically known. This holiday is considered to be the longest running African-American holiday and has been called America’s second Independence Day. While we honor this milestone in history, FVAP recognizes that many systems and institutions still exist that enslave and jeopardize human freedoms.

FVAP recognizes and observes Juneteenth as part of our year-round commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. We celebrate the victories of the past as we recognize the challenges of the present; we commit to a better, more equitable future for all, especially Black Americans.

In 2021, twenty-five years after the first bill to recognize Juneteenth was introduced, President Joe Biden signed into law the “Juneteenth National Independence Day Act”. FVAP staff honored this historic day by reflecting on its meaning and connection to our work, clients, community and staff. 

June 19th is recognized as “Juneteenth”, a commemoration signifying the end of enslavement for African descendants of the transatlantic slave trade. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was the public pronouncement of the end of slavery. It wasn’t until June 19th, 1865 – more than two years later –  that the Proclamation was announced to the enslaved people living in Galveston, Texas. 

Juneteenth is  a day of celebration, a celebration of independence like the Fourth of July. This day of pride signifies liberation and serves as a starting point for honoring the many contributions African Americans have made toward the industrialization of the United States. It is also a time for reflection and to recommit to daily actions to dismantle the institutional racism that still exists in our society.

Request for Proposal: Web Designer/Developer for Legal Resource Library

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Summary of Request

Family Violence Appellate Project (“FVAP”) seeks to transform its website into a comprehensive, user-friendly Legal Resource Library (“Project”) for attorneys, advocates, and survivors of domestic violence and gender-based abuse. The database will consist of model briefs, motions and pleading templates, toolkits and tip sheets, legal resources, social science research, and trainings developed by FVAP. FVAP seeks proposals from vendors to build and develop this Legal Resource Library on FVAP’s existing WordPress website platform.

Organizational Introduction:

FVAP is a California and Washington state non-profit legal organization whose mission is to ensure the safety and well-being of survivors of domestic violence and other forms of intimate partner, family, and gender-based abuse by helping them obtain effective appellate representation. FVAP provides legal assistance to survivors of abuse at the appellate level through direct representation, collaborating with pro bono attorneys, advocating for survivors on important legal issues, and offering training and legal support for legal services providers and domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking counselors. FVAP is the California State Bar-funded Support Center with expertise in domestic violence law, family law, and appellate procedure.

By centering our work on the most marginalized survivors, including rural, immigrant, Native American, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ communities, FVAP works to transform the power of the civil legal system to support all survivors of abuse. A significant part of this work is ensuring survivors, especially those experiencing multiple oppressions, and the people who support them, have access to the legal information, resources and remedies they need to achieve justice.

History of FVAP’s website and Legal Resource Library:

FVAP was founded in 2012, and launched its website (www.fvaplaw.org) that year.  The Legal Resource Library was launched in approximately 2016.  FVAP’s website and Legal Resource Library is hosted on WordPress.

In 2021, the California Access to Justice Commission (“CA ATJ”) announced an RFP for the Legal Aid Infrastructure & Innovation Grants. FVAP applied to upgrade its Legal Resource Library, and was selected as a grantee in early 2022. This project is being funded by the CA ATJ grant.

Project Overview and Purpose:

The Need:
FVAP relies extensively on thousands of documents (including social science and law review articles, legal briefs, case law,  research memos, referral resources and sample motions) both for impact appellate litigation and to provide technical assistance and written resources to attorneys, advocates, and self-represented litigants. Currently, FVAP has numerous independent systems for storing these resources, creating significant barriers to accessing and maintaining the resources. Additionally, only a small portion of these legal resource documents are available to attorneys, advocates, and self-represented litigants on FVAP’s website. FVAP has not had the capacity to further develop and maintain a comprehensive Legal Resource Library for the public. As an example, FVAP has over 7,000 files containing social science and legal research information that is not currently available on its website. Furthermore, survey responses have shown that individuals searching FVAP’s website for resources find it “cumbersome” and difficult to locate materials. Access to these resources is critical for attorneys, advocates, and self-represented litigants.

Goals and Outcomes:
An easy-to-use, highly effective, up-to-date resource library will significantly increase access to self-help materials, advocate resources, sample briefs and other legal resources, and social science and law review articles targeted to the appropriate audience. The external outcomes will be: 

  1. Self-represented DV survivors in California and Washington will have better access to legal information and resources to help them with their cases (estimated 200,000+ people/year)
  2. DV advocates in California and Washington will have better access to legal information and resources to help their survivor clients
  3. Legal aid attorneys in California and Washington will have better access to sample briefs, research, and social science to help survivors in trial court
  4. Legal aid attorneys nationwide will have better access to DV social science research and materials, as well as sample amicus briefs, to help survivors in trial or appellate courts
This technology-based infrastructure project will make a long-term impact on FVAP’s capacity to organize, maintain, and locate its legal resources because it will centralize and store all materials in the Legal Resource Library. This new streamlined system will significantly increase access to these important materials, while simultaneously decreasing FVAP attorney time needed to maintain these materials. This will also increase FVAP attorney effectiveness in responding to technical assistance requests and strengthen responses to legal aid and pro bono attorneys.
 
Usage of the Legal Resource Library will be tracked, and contemporaneous surveys will demonstrate the effectiveness of the interface tool and the resources provided. By quickly sending automated text- or email-based surveys to those who access materials, FVAP will have timely feedback on how to make materials more helpful and to determine what additional materials are needed.
View Full RFP Here

Victory for Survivors in Custody Cases with DV

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In this case, our client, Mother, got a domestic violence restraining order against Father after he physically abused her and refused to return their young son to her, requiring law enforcement to get involved.  The family court gave Mother sole legal and physical custody, but left in place a visitation schedule giving Father three days a week and Mother four.  Since this basically gave Father joint custody of the child for about 43% of the time, the family court was first supposed to see if Father had overcome the presumption against granting him custody, under Family Code section 3044, by analyzing the law’s seven factors in writing or on the record.  Since the family court did not do that, the appellate court reversed the visitation order, and sent the case back to the family court to follow the law.  In addition, the appellate court said the family court didn’t follow the law by refusing to give a “statement of decision,” which Mother had requested at trial, under Family Code section 3022.3.  This is the first published opinion under Family Code section 3022.3.

Read the opinion.

Victory for Survivors Seeking Restraining Order Renewals

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FVAP successfully obtained publication of a new case! In this case, the survivor requested to renew a restraining order against her former husband but the trial court denied the request. The survivor appealed the denial and the Court of Appeal reversed the denial because the trial court made an error by only considering whether the former husband committed acts of domestic violence during a narrow window of time when the original restraining order was in effect, and not whether the survivor had a reasonable fear of future abuse. The case has been sent back to the trial court for them to properly apply the law.

Read the opinion.

Oral Argument Today on Dangerous Child Custody Decision

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Today at 1:30pm, FVAP’s pro bono co-counsel from Wilmer Hale, Thomas Sprankling, will be arguing before the First District Court of Appeal, Division Two, where we, along with Bay Area Legal Aid, are representing a survivor of abuse appealing a dangerous child custody order.
In this case, after giving the survivor a three-year domestic violence restraining order and sole legal and physical custody, the trial court effectively granted the abusive parent joint physical custody by basically ordering 50/50 visitation, without applying the law presuming that is bad for children, found in Family Code section 3044.  The trial court also failed to issue a statement of decision upon the request of the survivor’s attorney, despite Family Code section 3022.3.

 

We hope that today’s outcome will land in favor of the survivor.