What’s New on WomensLaw.org

With funding from the Digital Trust Foundation, we created a new section called Technology Misuse under our Learn About Abuse tab in which we talk about civil and criminal options for dealing with technology abuse. We also re-wrote the definitions of stalking and cyberstalking on our Stalking/Cyberstalking page. Spanish translation soon to come.

We updated the listings in English and Spanish on our Oklahoma Lawyer Referral Services page.

We translated into Spanish our new Sexual Assault Restraining Order page in New Jersey, which was created in English in June.

We updated our Alabama Download Court Forms page.

We added a new resource, Womenstepforward.org, to our National Organizations - International/Immigration section in Spanish and English.

We updated our Alabama Know the Laws section based on legislative changes, adding information about requirements when filing on behalf of a minor against the minor’s other parent to Can a minor get a PFA order? and Who is eligible for a protection from abuse (PFA) order? to our Protection from Abuse Orders section. In our Custody section, we re-wrote the question I am the child’s grandparent. Can I get visitation? based on changes to the law and added the question What factors will a judge consider when deciding if a grandparent can get visitation? We also added the two related statutes to our Statutes page.

Thanks to help from the Texas Council on Family Violence, we made some changes to our Texas Family Violence Protective Orders page, revising various questions and adding information about the new law regarding automatic extensions of orders.

In Maine, we added three new crimes to our Statutes and Crimes pages. We also added a question called If the child was conceived from a sexual assault, can the offender’s rights be terminated? to the Custody page and updated various questions on our Restraining Orders pages based on legislative additions.

We improved our Kentucky Crimes page by hyperlinking 25 different degrees of crimes to their definitions on our State Statutes page.

We added the crime of custodial interference to our Kentucky Crimes page and Statutes page.

In response to an inquiry on the Email Hotline, we added the crime of domestic criminal trespass to our North Carolina Statutes page and Crimes page.

We improved our Massachusetts Crimes page by hyperlinking 1 crime to its definition on our State Statutes page.

We improved our Spanish and English Arizona Crimes page by hyperlinking 3 different degrees of crimes to their definitions on our State Statutes page.

In Texas, we added a new question to our Custody page called If the other parent’s new partner is abusive or a registered sex offender, do I have the right to know?, and updated various other questions throughout the Know the Laws section based on legislative changes. All changes were made in English and Spanish.

We improved our Minnesota Crimes page by hyperlinking 5 different degrees of crimes to their definitions on our State Statutes page.

We improved our Spanish and English Colorado Crimes page by hyperlinking 5 different degrees of crimes to their definitions on our State Statutes page.

We updated and added new resources to our Alaska Sheriff Departments page, totaling 34 resources in all.

We added two new crimes to our Wisconsin Crimes page.

We included more information in our U Visa section about the cooperation that is required from a victim when getting a certification, in Spanish and English.

We created a state-specific Divorce page in Georgia in English. We also added 6 corresponding statutes to our Georgia Statutes page.

We created a state-specific Divorce page in Arizona in English. We also added 4 corresponding statutes to our Arizona Statutes page.

We improved our Alaska Crimes page by hyperlinking 29 different degrees of crimes to their definitions on our State Statutes page.

We updated our Safety in Court and Safety with Social Media pages in English.

We added new resources to the Mississippi Legal Assistance page - Mississippi Volunteer Lawyers Project, Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance Legal Project, and Catholic Charities Legal Assistance Clinic. We also updated our Lawyer Referral Services page in Mississippi.

We translated into Spanish the Moving to Another State with a Civil Protection Order section in and the Enforcing your out-of-state order in D.C. from the Washington, D.C. Restraining Orders pages.

WomensLaw thanks Kristy Oriol, Policy Specialist at the Nevada Network Against Domestic Violence for her suggestions to our Nevada State Gun Laws page!

Check out our rewritten New Mexico State Gun Laws page! (Spanish translation soon to come.)

We updated the links on our Alabama Divorce page.

We added information about fees for service of all three types of personal protection orders (PPO) in Michigan to our Restraining Orders page.

We translated into Spanish the recently-revised Nevada Custody and Parental Kidnapping sections. (The English updates were made in March 2016).

We updated the links on our Arkansas Divorce page in English and Spanish.

We translated our recently-revised Washington State Gun Laws page into Spanish (the section was completely revised in English in December 2015).

We added the crime of non-consensual dissemination of private sexual images to our Illinois Spanish Crimes page.

We updated our New York Download Court Forms page in English and Spanish.

We updated our Delaware Download Court Forms page.

We updated links on our Divorce pages in Alaska, South Dakota, Guam, Hawaii, Georgia, and New Mexico (with the last two states also being updated in Spanish).

We translated into Spanish the Enforcing your out-of-state order in D.C. section in the Washington, D.C. Restraining Orders pages.

We added the Spanish translation for 4 questions on our New Jersey Domestic Violence Restraining Orders page, which were revised in English in February 2016.

We added the crime of extortion to the Iowa Crimes page and Statutes page.

We revised and updated the information on our Puerto Rico Custody, Crimes and Divorce pages in English and Spanish.

We added information in English and Spanish to our New York Custody page about a parent’s ability to get custody/visitation if convicted of sexual assault or murder - see Can a parent who committed domestic violence/sexual assault get custody or visitation?

We made some edits to our Federal Gun Laws page in English and Spanish - adding information from the Supreme Court case, United States v. Castleman, and other additional information.

We updated the information on our Nevada Download Court Forms page in Spanish and English.

In New York, we added 5 new crimes to our Crimes page, separated all 25 crimes into degrees and hyperlinked each crime by degree to our Statutes page. We also greatly improved the question What is the legal definition of domestic violence (“family offenses”) in New York? in our Orders of Protection section by hyperlinking each of the 32 family offenses to the corresponding criminal statutes. All changes were made in English and Spanish.

We updated the information in our Safety with an Abuser, Getting Ready to Leave, and Safety in Rural Areas pages in English and Spanish.

We updated the links to outside information on our Indiana Custody and Divorce pages.

Based on major changes to New York law, we re-wrote (in English and Spanish) the question in our New York Divorce page called Can I get maintenance (spousal support)? and we added a new question called If I am granted post-divorce maintenance, for how many years can I expect to receive it?

We re-wrote our entire Nevada Custody page in English, adding information based on recent legislative changes. We also revised our Nevada Parental Kidnapping page.

In response to an inquiry about the topic on the Email Hotline, we added the crime called dissemination of an unlawful image to our Nevada Statutes page and Crimes page. We also added 7 crimes to our Spanish Crimes page, which had previously been added to the English Crimes page.

We added the crimes of posting a private image for harassment and posting a private image for pecuniary gain to our Colorado Statutes page and Crimes page.

We added the crime of stalking to our Guam Statutes page and Crimes page.

In response to an inquiry on the Email Hotline about the distribution of intimate images in Delaware, We added the statute called violation of privacy to our Delaware Statutes page and Crimes page.

We translated Georgia State Gun Laws into Spanish (after having revised the content in this section in September 2015).

We added the crime of disorderly conduct, which includes distributing intimate images, to our California Crimes page and Statutes page.

We added the crime of sexual cyberharassment to our Florida Crimes page and Statutes page.

In response to an Email Hotline inquiry, we added the crime of depriving a person of custodial or parental rights to the Minnesota Crimes page and Statutes page.

We updated all of the resources on our Guam Finding a Lawyer page and Courthouse Locations page.

On our Arizona Domestic Violence Protection Orders page, we improved the information contained in What types of protection orders are there? How long do they last? in English and Spanish.

We improved the English content in 36 states in the State Gun Laws section for the questions “What is the difference between state and federal gun laws?” and “Who do I notify if I think the abuser should not have a gun?” We will now begin updating this same content in the remaining 18 states, in Spanish and English.

Based on an Email Hotline question, we added three new crimes in Louisiana to our Crimes page and to our Statutes page called:Video voyeurism; Nonconsensual disclosure of a private image; and Telephone communications; improper language; harassment.

In response to an Email Hotline inquiry, we added a statute about annulment to our North Carolina Statutes page.

We added 4 new statutes to our Louisiana Statutes page related to Louisiana’s new sexual assault protective orders. Next, we will create a new page in our Know the Laws section to explain the laws in “plain language.”

We added a new crime to our Maine Statutes page and Crimes page called the Unauthorized dissemination of certain private images, which was added to Maine law in October 2015.

We updated all of the non-legal organizations (more than 100 of them!) that are listed on our New York State and Local Programs page, adding descriptions of the services offered for every listing and adding many new listings.

We edited and updated our LGBTQ Victims page (formerly the Same-Sex Abuse page).

In response to recent Email Hotline inquiries, we added 3 new statutes to our NY Statutes page regarding the laws on registering an out-of-state custody order in New York and 1 new statute to our CA Statutes page related to parental kidnapping. We also added a question to our California Parental Kidnapping page in English and Spanish to explain the statute, called If I take my children to live out of state or hide them from the other parent, can I be charged with parental kidnapping?

We added a new statute to our Montana Statutes page and Crimes page called surreptitious visual observation or recordation.

We improved our Information for Teens page in English and Spanish.

We translated into English our recently revised Protection Orders section for Puerto Rico, in which we made multiple changes based on revisions to the state laws. Previously, this page was only in Spanish.