Legal Help for Domestic Violence Victims

WomensLaw is the first and only free, legal resource for survivors of domestic & dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking that offers safety and legal information and resources in "plain language" in both English and Spanish. We are dedicated to empowering survivors and their advocates to make informed decisions about their options, safety, and legal remedies. 

From February 1, 2015 to January 31, 2016, there were 1,510,716 people who accessed the life-saving information that is housed on WomensLaw.org. In the past four months (October 2015 to January 2016), we worked directly with 1,134 victims, survivors, and their friends, advocates, or family members through our Email Hotline. This unique hotline offers victims a direct line to ask a question of our attorneys and volunteers, who specialize in domestic violence and the law. We respond to every request as quickly as possible, but take time to respond thoughtfully and include individualized resources and information. We frequently correspond back and forth with the women and men who write in, and many are grateful for our assistance and support, as below:

“Thank you for your thoughtful and thorough information. I will share this with my daughter. The organization of your email and the links you provided made it easy to follow what you were saying and gave me plenty of resources. Thanks again!” -WomensLaw Email Hotline response

We answer questions and provide our expertise on a wide range of topics - including custody, divorce, relocation, and more. Here is one recent inquiry that we received on the Email Hotline, which demonstrates the need for legal information and resources for victims of abuse and harassment: 

“What are the proper steps to file a harassment complaint or to get someone to stop contacting you?  I have already blocked the person's cell phone number and all employment numbers they were calling me from but they continue to leave unwanted voicemails.” -WomensLaw Email Hotline inquiry

We are constantly updating our website, making changes and additions to it daily. Our priority is to make sure that the legal information that we have is current with changes in the laws and to continue to add new information that would be useful for victims and survivors of abuse. Between October 2015 and January 2016, we have made several updates to WomensLaw.org. We updated the contact information for non-profit legal organizations, courthouse locations, and state and local programs in Washington and New York and translated them into Spanish. We also updated and translated the Washington, D.C. Civil Protection Order page and Custody page. We added a new housing law page in Maine and updated and added laws in several states…and these are just a handful of the changes and improvements that we made over the past 4 months!

Thank you for supporting WomensLaw and the National Network to End Domestic Violence. Stay in the loop! Sign up for occasional action alerts and updates from NNEDV at: NNEDV.org/signup

Links:

• We've been in the news! Read more on Pinterest.

WomensLaw is the first and only free, legal resource for survivors of domestic & dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking that offers safety and legal information and resources in "plain language" in both English and Spanish. We are dedicated to empowering survivors and their advocates to make informed decisions about their options, safety, and legal remedies. 

In the past year, more than 1.5 million people accessed the life-saving information that is housed on WomensLaw.org. In the past three months (July to September 2015), we worked directly with more than 700 victims, survivors, and their friends, advocates, or family members through our Email Hotline. This unique hotline offers victims a direct line to ask a question of our attorneys and volunteers, who specialize in domestic violence and the law. We respond to every request as quickly as possible, but take time to respond thoughtfully and include individualized resources and information. We frequently correspond back and forth with the women and men who write in, and many are grateful for our assistance and support, as below:

"I do really appreciate the response - I attempted to call and emailed probably 3 or 4 individuals and you have been the only one to respond, so thank you!" -WomensLaw Email Hotline Inquiry

We answer questions and provide our expertise on a wide range of topics - including custody, divorce, relocation, and more, like this question that we recently received on the Email Hotline: 

"I live in a northeastern state, and I have never been married and I have not been to court with my daughter's father. I've had her full time since she was born and her father and I do our own visiting schedule. I was wondering if I could get in trouble for taking my daughter out-of-state to visit the zoo. I plan on coming back in the same day. I'm just wondering if leaving the state for a day trip is illegal or considered "parental kidnapping"." -WomensLaw Email Hotline Inquiry

This question drives home the clear need for our services and basic legal information for women and men facing difficult situations across the country. 

Thank you for supporting WomensLaw and the National Network to End Domestic Violence. Stay in the loop! Sign up for occasional action alerts and updates from NNEDV at: NNEDV.org/signup

Links:

• Expanding Spanish-language accessibility on WomensLaw.org
• WomensLaw Educating Survivors on Laws Relevant to the Threat of
• What's New on WomensLaw? (Aug-Oct 2015)