What Civil Justice Practitioners Can Do To Make a Difference

• Increase victim access to competent counsel.
• Design a civil legal system that is responsive to violence against women.
• Adopt custody codes that articulate "safety first" as the controlling legal principle in custody and visitation cases involving domestic or sexual violence or stalking.
• Promote the recovery and future safety and well-being of victims of sexual assault, dating and domestic violence, and stalking.
• Develop and implement statewide and tribal protocols for law enforcement, prosecution, courts, and state registries.
• Consider making violation of criminal protection orders related to violence against women a crime.
• Exempt victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, and stalking from mediation or other alternative dispute resolution processes.
• Ensure that decisions reached in marital dissolution, child custody, and other family law proceedings for cases involving domestic violence or child abuse adequately safeguard victims and their children.
• Change statutes, processes, and policies as needed to prevent victims from bearing the primary burden of the economic losses suffered from male violence against women.
• Be aware of the risks of mediation in cases involving domestic violence.

Resources