The legal landscape for domestic violence survivors in California has significantly shifted over the past half-decade, due in part to an increase in appellate litigation addressing systemic problems across several areas of civil law including restraining orders, custody and visitation cases, support matters, immigration, juvenile law and more. Four years ago at Pathways to Justice, Family Violence Appellate Project (FVAP) sought your input on appellate priorities and strategy which contributed to our statewide appellate work on behalf of domestic violence survivors.
This year, joined by Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice (LACLJ), which maintains a robust domestic violence-related appellate practice, we are seeking your input and collaboration on future strategy. What are the issues facing your clients which appellate case law needs to address? How should we prioritize that work? Have the
40 published appellate opinions resulting from FVAP and LACLJ's work addressed the issues raised four years ago? Are there unintended consequences? What other strategies such as legislation or systems change might address the most pressing issues facing domestic violence survivors?
We encourage attendees to think about these two questions in advance:
1. What has changed in DV legal practice in the past 4-5 years after new case law and statutes?
Is it better? Worse? In what ways?2. What are the most pressing legal issues your DV clients are facing right now?
