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October 2014
We added a new section to the Montana Restraining Orders page called Orders of Protection (for crime victims) to make it clear to our readers that certain crime victims can qualify for an order of protection even if they do not have an intimate or familial relationship with the offender. We also updated all of the information in our Montana Orders of Protection (for domestic violence victims) page.
We completed the Spanish translation for three recently-added questions on our Colorado Custody page (in English, the questions are: If my child was conceived due to a sexual assault, can the offender’s rights to the child be terminated?; Can a parent who committed abuse against me or my child get parental responsibilities (parenting time/decision-making responsibilities; and How will a judge make a decision about allocation of parental responsibilities?)
We clarified / improved some information on our Alabama Protection From Abuse Orders page. See What is the legal definition of domestic abuse in Alabama? and Who is eligible for a protection from abuse (PFA) order?
September 2014
We re-vamped the Michigan State Gun Laws page, adding new information to the questions related to who can get a concealed pistol permit. Check out one of these new questions called I am a victim of domestic violence and the abuser has a gun. Is that legal?
We added a new question on our North Dakota Custody page called When can I ask the court to change which parent has primary residential responsibility?
We added a new question to our all three of our Michigan Personal Protection Orders sections based on a 9/1/14 addition to Michigan law - see Will someone be able to search on the Internet to see that I have a PPO?
We added a new question in Spanish and English to our North Carolina Custody page called Can a parent who regularly drinks /abuses alcohol get custody or visitation?, related to the judge’s ability to order a parent to wear a continuous alcohol monitoring system. We also revised the question called: How will a judge make a decision about custody? to include information about a parent’s military deployment.
We added information to our Nebraska State Gun Laws page regarding the qualifications that must be met to get a concealed weapons permit and improved the overall content in the following questions: I am a victim of domestic violence and the abuser has a gun. Is that legal?, If the abuser has been convicted of a crime, can s/he keep or buy a gun?, and I do not have a protection order against the abuser, and s/he has not been convicted of a felony or domestic violence misdemeanor. Can s/he have a gun?
We re-vamped our New Hampshire Protective Orders (due to domestic violence) page. Some notable changes are that we created the following new questions: Can the judge issue a mutual protective order or cross-protective orders? and If I briefly get back together with the abuser, does this make the order invalid? We also added new crimes to our Crimes page and added information on the protections that can be granted in an ex parte temporary protective order to the question How can a protective order help me?
We added a new question to our Montana Custody page called If my child was conceived from rape, can the offender get custodial rights or visitation?
August 2014
We added a brief Workplace Protections page for Minnesota and improved the overall content in all of the Minnesota Know the Laws sections.
We added new Housing Laws section for Arkansas, Arizona, Texas, Colorado and New Jersey to include brief information about housing/tenancy-related laws that help victims of domestic abuse in each state.
We updated and added new links to outside sources on the Custody pages in West Virginia, South Carolina, New Mexico, Oregon, and Mississippi.
July 2014
We updated and enhanced the links to outside sources for every state in which we do not have a full divorce section (more than 40 states)! This is an improvement we have been hoping to make for a while and are excited it is completed.
We added a new Divorce section for the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Colorado law added certain custody provisions for women who conceived a child due to a sexual assault. We updated our Colorado Custody page to reflect the changes in the laws regarding allocation of parental responsibilities. We also added a new question called If my child was conceived due to a sexual assault, can the offender/parent’s rights to the child be terminated?
June 2014
New Yorkers who have an order of protection will want to read the new question we added to our NY Orders of Protection page regarding the fact that a victim cannot violate his/her own order of protection. We also overhauled the entire page to make it more concise and easier to read.
We added new links to outside sources on our Louisiana Custody page.
We clarified some information in our Maine Protection from Abuse Orders section to add information regarding the right of a victim of sexual assault or stalking to apply for a protection from abuse order, regardless of who the perpetrator is. We also took a fresh look at the whole section, making substantial edits. Check it out!
We added a lot of new information to the question on our Maine State Gun Laws page.
We added new links to outside sources on our Wyoming Divorce page.
May 2014
Check out our new and improved Harassment Restraining Orders section in Minnesota.
We added a new section to our Massachusetts Know the Laws section called Housing Laws. The section briefly covers the law that was passed in 2013, which allows victims of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking in MA to terminate their lease/rental agreement and/or to get their locks changed. We hope to expand the section this Fall.
Based on a law passed in April 2014, we added information to our Iowa Protective Orders page regarding protection for pets in protective orders. See How can a protective order help me? to read more about it.
We re-wrote and augmented the question on our Delaware Custody page called If a custody/visitation order is in place, how can I get it changed?
We revised all of the information on our Kentucky State Gun Laws page and we updated and enhanced the links to outside sources on our Kentucky Divorce page.
April 2014
We revised some of the information on our Kansas Protection from Abuse Orders page to make it easier to read.
March 2014
We updated the links to information from outside sources on our divorce page for Utah.
WomensLaw added brief info about Oregon’s new Sexual Assault Protective Orders, which became effective on 1/1/14. We also added the newly-created statutes to our OR Statutes page. Please check back in the Summer of 2014 when we hope to have a whole new section on the website devoted to SAPOs.
February 2014
We re-wrote the question “Where can I find more information about custody in Indiana?” on our IN Custody page and we updated/improved the links to outside sources on our IN Divorce page.
We updated the links to information from outside sources on our divorce pages for WI, NV, and WV as well as updating all of the contact information for legal services offices on our WV Finding a Lawyer page.
Based on a change to Connecticut law that clearly lays out the circumstances under which someone can ask for an emergency ex parte custody order, we added a question to our CT Custody page called Can I get an emergency ex parte custody order?
Prompted by an email from a WomensLaw.org visitor, we updated some outdated links in English and Spanish on our Helping Others - Doctors and Health Care Workers page. Please keep the suggestions coming!
January 2014
In Illinois, additional restrictions have been added to the law that could prohibit someone from getting a firearm owner’s identification card. This information can be crucial for a victim whose abuser has or plans to get a firearm. See I do not have an order of protection against the abuser, and s/he has not been convicted of a crime. Can s/he have a gun?
We added a new question to our Washington, D.C. custody page based on a June 2013 law prohibiting a convicted rapist from getting custody or visitation of a child conceived from the rape. See If my child was conceived from a sexual assault, can the biological father get custody or visitation? We also added the definitions of the sexual abuse crimes that come under the law to our DC Statutes page and our DC Crimes page.
As of January 1, 2014, California law added victims of human trafficking to the group of protected people who can terminate their lease without penalty, recognized a new form of acceptable documentation of the abuser, and added a new obligation of the landlord to keep the victim’s status confidential. We updated our CA Housing Laws section in English and Spanish to reflect these changes and we added a new question called If I reveal that I am a victim to my landlord, can s/he tell other people?
We added information to our Arkansas Domestic Violence Orders of Protection page and our AR Suing Your Abuser page about a law that was passed in August 2013, which allows a victim of stalking to sue the stalker for money damages, reasonable attorney’s fees, and court costs regardless of whether or not s/he was arrested for stalking.
Thanks to those organizations who contacted us this month with corrections/additions. We now added a new resource to our Washington, DC Legal Resources page called the Amara Legal Center, which helps those whose rights have been violated through the commercial sex industry. We also corrected contact information for various other local programs in AL, TN, and AZ. Please keep letting us know about any updated information!
December 2013
We are often asked on the Email Hotline about laws that relate to a person posting sexual images online of another person without his/her consent. On 12/5/13, there was an Appellate Division decision in NY state that confirmed a defendant’s conviction for secretly videotaping sexual acts with another person and threatening to post them online - you can read the decision here. At WomensLaw.org, we added new criminal laws to our NY Statutes page regarding unlawful surveillance and dissemination of the images. You can read those criminal laws on our NY Statutes page here (unlawful surveillance) and here (dissemination).
November 2013
Thanks to an email from a non-profit called Sex Workers Anonymous, we learned that many of the organizations listed on our National Organizations/Trafficking/Prostitution/Sexual Exploitation page had changed their contact info or had closed. Therefore, we updated every resource on that page. Check out what resources are available nationally for victims of the sex trade.
New laws were passed in Arkansas in 2013, which are featured on WomensLaw.org. Check out the new question entitled If my child was conceived from rape, can the rapist get custody or visitation? Also, the law now makes clear that a victim of stalking can sue the stalker in civil court for damages regardless of whether or not there is a criminal conviction against the stalker. You can read the law on our AR Statutes page. Arkansas law also expanded the definition of stalking - read the law here.
October 2013
We re-translated the Colorado custody section into Spanish after making substantial additions and changes to this section a little while ago in English.
We translated some recent improvements on our General Parental Kidnapping page into Spanish.
September 2013
We added new information about housing protections in Connecticut for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. See our CT Housing Laws section for more information.
July 2013
We are thrilled to announce that we have created new Crimes pages for all states and territories. You can now go to your state’s Crimes page to read the definitions of a selection of crimes in your state that the abuser may have committed and you can find links to victim compensation programs in each state.
Read about how the US Supreme Court’s strike-down of DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) could help same-sex victims qualify for VAWA relief! See our new question, Does a same-sex marriage count as being “married” to the abuser for immigration purposes?
We updated and improved our Oregon State Gun Laws page, adding more information about when a concealed handgun permit can be revoked after receiving an inquiry about this on our Email Hotline. Keep the inquiries coming!
We revised the first part of our Military section, updating links and information in English and Spanish - see here: General Military Information. The update was inspired by someone who wrote to our Email Hotline asking about the rights of a homosexual Service member, which made us realize that we hadn’t yet updated our information about the rights of same-sex victims in the military after the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Check back next month to see the updates to the second Military section, Military Protective Orders.
June 2013
We finally finished translating into Spanish the FL Injunctions for Protection Against Stalking/Cyberstalking page that we created in April 2013!
Attention Maine residents, we re-wrote the question How can a protection from abuse order help me? and added information about what a judge can order in a temporary, ex parte order.
Check out our revised Safety with Social Media page in English and Spanish. We added more safety tips for using MySpace and Twitter and revised the safety information we have about using Facebook.
May 2013
We revised our Refugee Status page in English and Spanish.
We updated our T-Visa section in English and Spanish, correcting links and information.
Check out our updated Trafficking, Sexual Assault or Stalking Protective Orders section in Texas (in English and Spanish). We added a question to clarify the definition of stalking and made some other changes.
April 2013
We revamped our Domestic Violence page (in English and Spanish), which is located in our Learn About Abuse tab.
We added more information to our Preparing Your Case page, including a new question about how a pro se litigant can best present his/her case for custody when it is being decided as part of a protection order hearing. (All changes are also in Spanish.)
A Florida law that was passed in October 2012 allowed for the creation of civil injunctions based on stalking. WomensLaw has now created an entirely new section with detailed information about Injunctions for Protection Against Stalking/Cyberstalking.
We finally completed translating the Illinois Restraining Orders page that we re-wrote in English back in August 2012 into Spanish! Check it out here: Órdenes de Protección.
March 2013
We added a question to our NY Divorce page in English and Spanish about getting spousal support before, during, and after a divorce.
February 2013
Based on changes to Arizona’s laws that took effect 1/1/13, WomensLaw completely revised the information that we had on our Arizona Custody page in both Spanish and English. We also added some new questions, including Can a parent who abuses drugs or alcohol get legal decision-making?, Can a parent who is a registered sex offender or who murdered the other parent get legal decision-making or parenting time?, information on relocating out of state, as well as information on non-relatives’ ability to apply for visitation here.
January 2013
We translated our newly-revised NY Custody page into Spanish. Check it out here: Custodia.
November 2012
NEWS UPDATE for New York residents: In October 2012, NY state created the Order of Protection Notification System, which allows you to be notified by e-mail, text, iPhone/iPad app, telephone, fax or web query, when law enforcement serves your family court order of protection upon the abuser. For more information or to register, visit NY-Alert or the Sheriff’s Institute. In November 2012, NY created an Address Confidentiality Program (“ACP”), which helps a victim who registers with the program to keep his/her address confidential when filing court petitions. All mail is sent to the ACP and the ACP will send it to your actual (confidential) address. To register, click here.
Changes to KS law in 2012 allow for a protection from abuse order or a protection from stalking order to be extended for anywhere from 2 years to the lifetime of the abuser if certain conditions are met. Read about it on our updated KS question entitled How do I change or extend my order?
We revised the information we have on custody in CO, which is known as allocation of parental responsibilities. You can read it here.
Based on 2012 changes to MS law, we changed the information on our MS page under What can I do if the abuser violates the order?
October 2012
We improved our NJ question about the definition of domestic violence for the purpose of getting a restraining order. You can read it here.
Check out the new legal resources we added for survivors who need to appeal an order involving custody, protection orders, etc. on the Appeals section of our National Organizations page.
We added new information about the protections that are provided in Virginia in an emergency protective order and a preliminary protective order.
In Virginia, we also added information about what happens if an abuser violates a protective order for an act of violence, force or threat and a protective order for family abuse.
Based on 2012 changes to states’ laws, we added a question about what happens to a parent’s custody or visitation rights when s/he is deployed by the military in Indiana.
We added information about grandparent visitation rights in Connecticut and in Georgia.
Check out our newly revised Custody section in NY!
Based on changes to MD’s laws, effective 10/1/12, we updated specific questions in our Peace Orders section and in our Domestic Violence Protective Orders section.
September 2012
In Nevada, we added the Spanish translation of our recently revised Orders for Protection Against Domestic Violence page. Check it out here.
We expanded our Orders of Protection due to Stalking section in Missouri in response to a hotline inquiry we received on our Email Hotline. If you want more information than we have on our website, please write to us and ask - we are listening!
August 2012
We revised all of the information on our Hawaii Restraining Orders pages, including our Orders for Protection due to Domestic Abuse (Family Court) section and our Injunctions Against Harassment (District Court) section.
We revised all of the information on our Illinois Orders of Protection pages in English.
July 2012
With the help of the AZ Coalition Against DV, we revised the information on all of our AZ Restraining Orders pages (in Spanish and English). Thanks Merri and Shannon from the AZCADV!
Based on changes to Nebraska law that became effective July 19, 2012, we revised the information our NE Domestic Violence Protection Orders pages.
We completed the English translation of another section of our Puerto Rico pages. Check out Orders of Protection for the Welfare and Protection of Children in English!
May 2012
We added a new section to our Illinois Orders of Protection page called The protections offered in each kind of order, which discusses the benefits of each type of order of protection, information on getting an order against a school-mate, and much more.
Check out our new Workplace Restraining Orders section on our Rhode Island page.
We revised our Alaska Stalking and Sexual Assault Protective Orders section.
Our Refugee Status information is now in Spanish.
April 2012
We completely overhauled Domestic Violence Protection Orders and Harassment Protection Orders in Nebraska.
The new information about CA’s housing law that protects victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking that we added to WomensLaw.org in March 2012 is now in Spanish!
We completely overhauled the information on our Maryland Custody section. Over the next month, we will continue to revise the rest of the state so keep checking back!
In MI, we added a new section on Non-Domestic Sexual Assault Personal Protection Orders and we revised our Non-Domestic Stalking Personal Protection Orders page.
Check out our newly revised Stalking/Cyberstalking page in English and Spanish under our Learn About Abuse tab.
We revised the information on our VA Protective Orders for an Act of Violence, Threat, or Force page.
Check out our updated information about Alaska’s victim compensation for victims of certain violent crimes. To read more, go to Victim Compensation.
We revamped our Alaska pages on stalking protective orders and sexual assault protective orders, combining them into one section to more closely reflect the statutes (laws). The new section is called Stalking and Sexual Assault Protection Orders.
March 2012
In Nevada, we have added the Spanish translation of Orders of Protection Against Harassment in the Workplace.
Our NC Child Support information is now in Spanish!
We added a new section to our Vermont page called Sexual Assault or Stalking Protective Orders. These are available to someone who was sexually assaulted or stalked by someone who is not a family or household member.
Read about a CA law that allows victims of stalking, sexual assault or domestic violence to terminate their rental lease early without penalty on our new CA Housing Laws section.
