What’s New on WomensLaw.org

We created a Puerto Rico Gun Laws section in English to explain the gun laws in Puerto Rico relating to domestic violence, orders of protection, and crimes. Spanish coming soon! We also added three related statutes to the Selected Puerto Rico Statutes section, in Spanish.

In our Indiana Orders for Protection due to Domestic Violence page, we re-wrote What protections can I get in an order for protection due to domestic violence? and added information about the protection of pets and transferring shared cell phone numbers to a petitioner based on 2017 additions to the law. (We regret the delay in adding this information.) We also added a related statute to the Selected Indiana Statutes page.

On our Asylum page, we revised the information in the question What is asylum? Who can be eligible for asylum status? to reflect the December 19, 2018 court ruling related to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault who apply for asylum. Changes made in English and Spanish.

On our Massachusetts Divorce page, we added a question called What are the basic steps for filing for divorce? in English and Spanish.

In our Arkansas Crimes page, we added four crimes related to kidnapping and interference with custody and visitation in English and Spanish. We also added one related statute to our Selected Arkansas Statutes page in English.

We added four crimes to our Kansas Crimes page, including ”commercial sexual exploitation of a child” and “human trafficking” and we added the related statutes to our Selected Kansas Statutes page.

We revised the information in What types of orders are there? How long do they last? in our Kansas Protection from Abuse Orders page to clarify that a victim would contact law enforcement to apply for an emergency order when the courts are closed.

Based on a 2018 change to the law regarding “criminal use of weapons” that included more people prohibited from using a firearm, we updated three questions in our Kansas State Gun Laws section. We also updated the related statute in our Selected Kansas Statutes page.

We added links to court forms for non-parental custody to the question Can a non-parent file for custody of a child? in our Washington Custody section. Changes made in English and Spanish. 

We updates two resources on our California Local Programs page in English and Spanish.

We translated into Spanish our Michigan Enforcing Your Out-of-State Order section in the Restraining Order page. 

We translated into Spanish our Massachusetts Moving with an Abuse Prevention Order section in the Restraining Order page. 

We translated into Spanish the Massachusetts Enforcing Your Out-of-State Order section in the Restraining Orders page.

On our Tennessee Crimes page, we added eight new crimes and updated the links to outside resources. We also added eight related statutes to the Selected Tennessee Statutes page.

We revised all of the contact information for the 36 courthouses listed in our Oregon Courthouse Locations page. Spanish coming soon!

In Michigan, we added the question “Will I have to face the abuser in court?” in English and Spanish to the Non-Domestic Stalking Personal Protection Orders section and the Non-Domestic Sexual Assault Personal Protection Orders section. 

We translated into Spanish the information on our Massachusetts Housing Laws page.

We translated into Spanish our recently updated Divorce information in Illinois.

We added the crime of “aggravated family offense” to our New York Crimes page in English and Spanish and to our Selected New York Statutes page in English.

Based on an addition to Michigan laws, we added information to three questions in our Restraining Orders section about the judge being able to order an abuser not to attend school in the same building as a minor sexual assault victim. Changes were made in English and Spanish in the Domestic Relationship Personal Protection Orders section. In the other two sections, Spanish is soon to come!

We updated the links to PPO forms on the Michigan Download Court Forms page and added new links to PPO forms that are used when filing against minors. All changes made in English – Spanish soon to come!

We translated into Spanish the recently updated Divorce information in North Carolina.

We just discovered that due to a computer glitch, all of the links on our Spanish Crimes pages have not been working since 2017. We fixed the links in the 24 states that were affected so that each crime correctly links to the appropriate statute on our Selected State Statutes pages. We regret the inconvenience this may have caused our users during this past year.

We added six new crimes in English and Spanish to our Florida Crimes page. We also added the statutes for two of those crimes in English to our Selected Florida Statutes page.

We updated the Divorce information in Massachusetts in English, adding information on residency, grounds and alimony requirements, and added ten related statutes to our Selected Massachusetts Statutes page. Spanish coming soon!

We updated the Divorce information in Colorado in English, adding information on residency, grounds and alimony requirements, and added two related statutes to our Selected Colorado Statutes page. Spanish coming soon!

We translated into Spanish the information on our Michigan Suing an Abuser page.

We updated our Hawaii Download Court Forms page, updating the links to protective order forms and adding links to uncontested divorce forms and more.

We added information to two questions in our Florida Restraining Orders section about possible jail time and fines for violating an injunction for protection against stalking/cyberstalking and an injunction against repeat, dating, and sexual violence. All changes made in English and Spanish.

We revised and reorganized the information on our Hawaii Workplace Protections page and added additional information about the definitions of sexual assault and of family and household members to What is considered to be “domestic or sexual violence” under the law?

As we begin creating a Hawaii State Gun Laws section from scratch, we added two new statutes to our Selected Hawaii Statutes page.

In our Georgia Bonds for Good Behavior section, we re-wrote the information in What protections can I get in a bond for good behavior? in English. Spanish soon to come!

We translated into Spanish the content on our completely revised Massachusetts Abuse Prevention Orders page.

We updated the links to protection order forms on our Vermont Download Court Forms page and linked to additional forms, such as divorce, parental rights responsibilities, small claims court, and more.

We created a new question in our Idaho Protection Orders page called Can a minor get a protection order?

We translated into Spanish the Extreme Risk Protection Orders page in our Massachusetts Restraining Orders section.

We added new information to three questions on our Hawaii Orders for Protection due to Domestic Abuse (Family Court) page about it being illegal to have a firearm or ammunition when an order for protection is in place and what steps law enforcement is supposed to take to get the firearms. We also added the relevant law to our Selected Hawaii Statutes page. 

We updated our New York Housing Laws in the question If I am a victim of domestic violence, how can this law protect me? to add a link to the specific petition that a person would file to ask a judge to terminate their lease. Changes were made in Spanish and English. 

We created a new section in our West Virginia Restraining Orders page called Personal Safety Orders. We also added six related statutes to our Selected West Virginia Statutes page.

We updated our West Virginia Download Court Forms page by adding links to personal safety orders, parenting plans, and divorce.

In our Delaware Restraining Orders section, we re-wrote the question Do I have to register my out-of-state protection order in Delaware in order to get it enforced? in order to distinguish between the requirements for an order to be enforced by law enforcement and by a court and to add information about Canadian orders.

We updated our Ohio Statewide Programs page by adding the Ohio Domestic Violence Network and deleting outdated resources. 

We updated the contact information for the National Runaway Safeline on our National Organizations page.

In our Delaware Divorce page, we updated the information in What are the grounds to file for an annulment in Delaware? based on an amendment to the law. We also revised and reorganized the content of the question to make it easier to read and moved some of the information to a new question we created called What is the difference between an annulment and a divorce?

In our Massachusetts State Gun Laws section, we added information about an order of suspension and surrender in two questions related to whether or not an abuser can have a gun when there is a temporary or final abuse prevention order. We also included information about how an extreme risk prevention order based affects one’s rights to have a gun based on an August 2018 change to the law. Spanish soon to come!

In our North Carolina Housing Laws page, we updated links to outside sources in Spanish and English.

We completely revised the content on our Massachusetts Abuse Prevention Orders page, rewriting much of the content and adding three new questions (including two questions related to whether a minor can file for an order or be the defendant in an order). All changes in English; Spanish coming soon.

We translated into Spanish the newly added District of Columbia Workplace Protections page.

We translated two resources into Spanish and one resource into English in our Connecticut Legal Assistance page.

We translated into Spanish the reviewed information for the Virginia Statewide Hotline under the Virginia Statewide Programs.

We translated into Spanish ten (10) Local Programs in Texas and seven (7) programs that provide Legal Services for Battered Immigrant Women.

In Montana, we updated the links to outside sources on our Custody, Divorce, and Crimes pages.

We updated our Arizona Housing Laws section based on a change to the law that includes sexual assault victims as protected tenants. We also divided up the information that we had (going from two questions to three) in order to make it easier to read. All changes made in English and Spanish.

We added a District of Columbia Workplace Protections page in English and 3 corresponding statutes to the Selected District of Columbia Statutes page. Spanish translation coming soon!

We updated the Divorce information in Guam, adding information on residency, grounds and alimony requirements, and added 18 related statutes to our Selected Guam Statutes page.

We updated our Oregon State Gun Laws section in English, adding state-specific information to existing questions and reorganizing the entire section to make the information more accessible. We also added five related statutes to the Oregon Selected Statutes section. 

We updated the Divorce information in West Virginia, adding information on residency, grounds and alimony requirements, and added 11 related statutes to our Selected West Virginia Statutes page.

We translated into Spanish the Virginia Download Court Forms page. 

We translated into Spanish our newly added New Mexico Workplace Protections page.

To make the information easier to find, we moved the child support information from the Wisconsin Custody section to a newly-created Child Support section. We also revised the information in that section and updated the links to outside sources.

In our Louisiana Protective Orders (for Domestic Abuse) page, we added information about relief that a victim can get in the question How can a protective order help me?

With the help of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, we completely re-wrote the answer to the question The abuser uses a gun for his/her job. Does the law still apply? in our Federal Gun Laws section in English. Spanish soon to come.

We translated into Spanish our recently updated Michigan State Gun Laws.

We translated into Spanish the District of Columbia Download Court Forms page.

We updated our Massachusetts State Gun Laws section in English, adding state-specific information to existing questions and reorganizing the entire section to make the information more accessible. We also added a related statute to the Massachusetts Selected Statutes section. 

We added a new resource in our Colorado Legal Assistance page called Bringing Home Justice, where qualified victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and others can receive free (pro bono) representation for civil legal issues. The information is provided both in English and Spanish.

We translated into Spanish our newly added Documenting/Saving Evidence page in our Abuse Using Technology section.

We translated into Spanish our updated Divorce information in Arkansas, which added information on residency, grounds and alimony requirements.