By Stacey Sarver | WomensLaw Director
WomensLaw is the first and only free, legal resource for survivors of domestic and 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, 2018, to April 30, 2018, 207,395 people accessed the life-saving information that is housed on WomensLaw.org.
In the past three months (February 2018 through April 2018), we worked directly with 728 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 answer to every request as quickly as possible with a thoughtful response that includes individualized resources and information. We frequently correspond several times with the women and men who write in, and many express their gratitude for our assistance and support. We also hear from the advocates providing direct services to victims who use WomensLaw.org to support their clients. Some responses we have received over the Email Hotline are below:
“Thank you so much for your response. I am checking out everything you sent me. I hope it will be the help we are so desperately needing.”
(WomensLaw Email Hotline response, February 2018)
And:
“Hi there – I just wanted to thank you for all of your help. I contacted [a justice center]and will be meeting with an advocate next week who knows the ins and outs of the law and who will be with me throughout the entire process and court hearing. Without your help I would still be lost, not knowing who to turn to for help. The service you provided to me is invaluable and I am so very grateful. Once again, thank you!”
(WomensLaw Email Hotline response, April 2018)
We answer questions and provide our expertise on a wide range of topics – including custody, divorce, relocation, and more. Often, victims or their loved ones are writing in to get some basic legal information about their situation when they cannot find legal representation. Although we do not provide legal advice, we can explain relevant laws that may help the victim to make an informed decision.
It is especially rewarding when someone tells us that we explained the legal information and provided resources in a way that helps them understand their options and think through what to do next. Here is one such reply that we received on the Email Hotline:
“Thank you so much for the information you provided! It was very helpful and gave me a much better insight to the [legal] process.”
(WomensLaw Email Hotline response, April 2018)
We are constantly updating our website (http://www.WomensLaw.org) – making changes and additions daily. Our priority is to make sure that our legal information is current with changes in the laws while continuing to add new information that would be useful for victims and survivors of abuse. Between February 1, 2018, and April 30, 2018, we made hundreds of updates, such as:
.…And these are just a handful of the changes and improvements that we made over the past three months! See them all here on our What’s New page: https://www.womenslaw.org/about/news.
Thank you for supporting WomensLaw and the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV).
Stay in the loop! Sign up for occasional action alerts and updates from NNEDV at: NNEDV.org/signup.
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