Legal Help for Domestic Violence Victims

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 August 1, 2019, to October 31, 2019, 482,232 people accessed the life-saving information that is housed on WomensLaw.org.

In the past three months (August 2019 through October 2019), we worked directly with 1,428 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 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, so, so very much for your help!!!!! It is priceless!!! The time & energy & effort you have given to help [us] is just so very much appreciated. You have answered all my questions with compassion, understanding, intelligence & diligence. I cannot thank you enough!!!!” (WomensLaw Email Hotline response, August 2019) 

And:

“Your email was the most informative one I’ve gotten back after all the ones I sent out. I really truly appreciate you time. Thank you!” (WomensLaw Email Hotline response, October 2019) 

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 writes in to help a friend or family member who is experiencing abuse and our answer is able to provide information and resources that may help the writer support their loved one. Here is one such reply that we received on the Email Hotline:

“Thanks so much for this very helpful information, especially links to additional resources. I'll pass it on to my sister so she can begin to decide about possible next steps.

“I'm especially grateful that I can at least provide her with useful information. I've seen her suffer through a very difficult life. Obviously there is much to consider, including what pursuing this might mean emotionally and psychologically for her and how it could affect her relationship with her husband (she is newly married to a WONDERFUL man) and her adult children. Thanks again. I'm so glad I found WomensLaw.” (WomensLaw Email Hotline response, August 2019)

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 August 1, 2019, and October 31, 2019, we made hundreds of updates, such as:

• On our Georgia Crimes page, we updated the name of the crime that was formerly called “sexual assault” and is now called “improper sexual contact” based on a 2019 change to the law. Changes made in English and Spanish.
• Based on a 2019 addition to Georgia’s laws, we added information in English and Spanish to our Georgia Custody page. Specifically, we added that blindness cannot be the reason that custody can is denied to a parent to the question How Will a Judge Make a Decision about Custody? 
• We revised the content in the Ways to Educate Yourself section in English and Spanish. We also relocated it to our Court System Basics section to make it easier to find.
• We added a District of Columbia Extreme Risk Protection Orders page in English and 5 corresponding statutes to the Selected District of Columbia Statutes page. Spanish translation coming soon!
• Based on July 2019 changes to the law, we updated multiple questions in our Indiana Orders for Protection (due to Domestic Violence) page. We included new grounds for which a child can get an order to multiple questions; we re-wrote the question called Can I Get an Order for Protection If I’m a Minor?; and we added a new question called Aside from Domestic or Family Violence, What are the Other Reasons for Which I Can Get an Order for Protection? to include the new ground of harassment as the basis for an order. 
• We translated into Spanish our newly updated question Who Can Get Custody? in our New Jersey Custody page. 
• We translated into Spanish the new question How Does an Abuser Give Up His/Her Guns and Ammunition? and the other two updated questions in our Colorado State Gun Laws page. 
• Based on 2019 changes to the laws, in our Illinois Orders of Protection section, we updated Who is Eligible for an Order of Protection? to add information on the additional people who can be protected by an order. We also updated multiple questions in our Illinois Stalking No Contact Orders section to include that an authorized agent of a school, workplace, or house of worship can file for an order. All changes were made in English and Spanish. 
• We added a Litigation Abuse page in our About Abuse section in English and Spanish.
• We translated into Spanish our recently created District of Columbia Extreme Risk Protection Orders page.
• We added a new section about Orders of Protection for Adults with Disabilities to our Illinois Restraining Orders page. Spanish coming soon!
• We added information on our Ohio Suing An Abuser page about suing in civil court if an abuser shares your private sexual images. We also added the corresponding statute to our Selected Ohio Statutes page.
• We added the crime of nonconsensual dissemination of private sexual images to our Ohio Crimes page in Spanish and English.
• We added a Vermont Extreme Risk Protection Orders page and five corresponding statutes to the Selected Vermont Statutes page.

.…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.