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April 2016
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 added the crime of custodial interference and the penalties for harassment and stalking to our South Carolina Crimes page.
We added a new question to our Maine Custody page called If I plan to relocate, what type of notice do I need to give to the other parent? and added information to the question called Can a final order be changed? What about if I want to relocate?
We translated our recently-revised Washington State Gun Laws page into Spanish (the section was completely revised in English in December 2015).
We revised and reorganized the information on our Delaware State Gun Laws page.
We updated our Delaware Download Court Forms page.
In response to an Email Hotline inquiry, we added the law about criminal statutes of limitations to our New York Statutes page.
We revised and reorganized the information on our Wisconsin State Gun Laws page and added new questions about extending a restraining order in three different sections on our Wisconsin Restraining Orders page.
We added two new resources, VictimConnect and Journey Out, in Spanish and English to our National Organizations page and updated 5 other resources.
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 updated the information on our Safety Tips for Stalking Victims page in English and Spanish.
We updated our New York Download Court Forms page in English and Spanish.
We added new information to our New York Orders of Protection section about the ability to file a petition for an order of protection or a modification petition in the criminal court when the family court is closed. We also improved the information on our New York Divorce, Parental Kidnapping and Custody pages - all changes were made in English and Spanish.
March 2016
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.
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.
We added a Stalking Protection Orders page to the U.S. Virgin Islands Restraining Orders page.
We added a new resource for victims of crime - The D.C. Victim Hotline to our Washington, D.C. Crimes page in English.
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 completely revised the Nevada State Gun Laws page in English, improving the information on the page. (The Spanish translation is coming soon!)
We updated the information on our Nevada Download Court Forms page in Spanish and English.
We added the Spanish translation for our Suing Your Abuser pages in Washington, D.C., Georgia, and Washington.
We added the New Hampshire Bar Association Program to our New Hampshire Statewide Programs page, updated the description for the Vermont Network Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Violence on the Vermont Statewide Programs page, updated the description for the Ohio Domestic Violence Network on the Ohio Statewide Programs page, and updated the description for the West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence Central Service Office on the West Virginia Statewide Programs page.
We updated and edited the Internet Security page in the Staying Safe section of the website in Spanish (the English was edited in February 2016).
We updated our Sexual Assault/Rape page in English and Spanish.
We added content to our North Carolina Civil No-Contact Orders for Victims of Registered Sex Offenders (“50D orders”) page and our North Carolina Statutes page.
We updated our Preparing Your Case page in English and Spanish.
February 2016
In the Preparing for Court section, we updated our Legal Definitions page, in English and Spanish.
In our New Hampshire Custody and Divorce sections, we updated the links to outside websites. We also added information about the best interest factors considered by a judge in custody cases to our NH Statutes page.
We updated and edited the Internet Security page in the Staying Safe section of the website in English.
We updated and edited our Federal Gun Laws page in English and Spanish. We also updated the corresponding federal statutes on our Federal Statutes page.
We updated the links on our Helping Others Doctors and Health Care Workers section in English and Spanish.
Thanks to input from Anu Abraham, Esq., Staff Attorney at the New Jersey Coalition to End Domestic Violence, we significantly improved the information on our New Jersey Restraining Orders page (Spanish translation soon to come!)
We updated all of the resources in English and Spanish on our Nevada Where to Find Help page, including 33 state and local programs, 5 organizations under Finding a Lawyer, and 21 Courthouse Locations.
We improved the English and Spanish content in 18 states/territories 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?” (The other 36 states/territories were completed in January 2016.)
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.
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).
January 2016
In response to an Email Hotline inquiry, we added a statute about annulment to our North Carolina Statutes page.
We significantly edited our North Dakota Protection Orders page and added relevant statutes to our ND Statutes page.
On our Minnesota Harassment Restraining Orders page, we added information on violations in the Violation of a harassment restraining order section and added statutes to our Minnesota statutes 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.
Based on an Email Hotline inquiry, we added 4 new statutes to our Montana Statutes page regarding enforcement and registration of a foreign custody order.
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.
We updated our California Housing Laws section in English and Spanish based on changes to California law that became effective 1/1/16.
On our Pennsylvania Custody page, we added a new question called If my child was conceived from sexual assault, can the offender get custody or visitation? and added much more information to the existing question, Can a parent who committed violence get custody or visitation? All changes were made in English and Spanish. We also added three related statutes to our PA Statutes page.
December 2015
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.
We added the crime of Distribution of intimate images without or against consent to our North Dakota Crimes page and Statutes page.
We added the crimes of stalking in the first degree and stalking in the second degree to our Kentucky Crimes page.
We significantly edited our Washington State Gun Laws page and added relevant statutes to our WA Statutes page.
A new law became effective in October 2015 in North Carolina, which created a civil no contact order for victims of sex offenses where the offender was convicted of the offense in criminal court and ordered to register as a sex offender. WomensLaw.org added the 11 relevant statutes to our NC Statutes page along with a note to our website visitors to explain that a new page will soon be created.
We added new information in Spanish and English to the question Can I get my child’s medical expenses included in the order? in our North Carolina Child Support section based on a clarification in North Carolina’s laws regarding what is a “reasonable cost” for health coverage for a child. We also updated various other questions on the North Carolina Know the Laws pages based on other statutory changes.
We translated all of our newly-updated New York State and Local Programs into Spanish (114 records!)
We added a new statute that became effective December 1, 2015 to our North Carolina Statutes page and Crimes page called Disclosure of private images.
We added a new statute to our Montana Statutes page and Crimes page called surreptitious visual observation or recordation.
We revised the information in Spanish and English in How can I tell if my friend is in an abusive relationship? on our Information for Teens page.
We updated our Missouri Restraining Orders pages based on changes to Missouri law that allows victims of sexual assault to get orders of protection. We also added the crime of parental kidnapping and the defense to parental kidnapping to our Missouri Crimes page and Missouri Statutes page.
Based on recent changes to Minnesota laws, we changed all of the information on our Minnesota Custody page and we added a new question called Can the non-custodial parent have access the child’s medical, health, and school records?
We added a new law to our Louisiana Statutes page regarding possession of firearms when there is a protective order in place and we added new “plain-language” information about this to the following questions in the State Gun Laws and Protective Orders (for Domestic Abuse) sections, respectively: I have a protective order against the abuser. Can s/he keep a gun or buy a new gun? and How can a protective order help me?
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.
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?
November 2015
We updated the Colorado Download Court Forms page in English and Spanish.
Continuing towards our goal of translating the whole state of Washington, we translated the Washington Custody page into Spanish!
We created a new section to our Maine Know the Laws section - check out our Maine Housing Laws page! We also added the relevant statutes to our Maine Statutes page.
October 2015
We updated all of the legal organizations (more than 100!) that are listed on our New York Finding a Lawyer page, adding descriptions of the services offered for every listing and adding many new listings.
We added a new resource to our National Organizations Posting Sexual Images without Consent/”Revenge Porn” section in English and Spanish.
We translated into Spanish the D.C. Civil Protection Orders (for domestic violence victims) page and the D.C. Custody page, which were updated in English in September.
In response to an inquiry on our Email Hotline about this topic, we added a new question in English and Spanish to our California Divorce section called If my spouse was convicted of domestic violence or sexual assault against me, can I be ordered to pay him/her alimony? We also added the language of four statutes that are related to that question in our CA Statutes page and linked to one of them on our Crimes page.
We translated into Spanish the contact information for 114 North Carolina State and Local Programs, which we recently updated in English.
We verified and updated the contact information for each courthouse on our Courthouse Locations page in Washington in English and Spanish.
We added a new resource in English and Spanish to our National Organizations Rape/Sexual Assault page called the It Happened to Alexa Foundation, which offers financial support to rape victims’ families to travel to a criminal trial against the rapist.
We updated our Oregon Restraining Orders section to include the commonly-used acronyms for each restraining order and to make it clearer that the sexual abuse protective orders protect victims of all forms of sexual assault.
September 2015
We updated the information on how Salon Professionals can help victims of domestic violence, under our Helping Others tab.
We created a new Louisiana Sexual Assault Protective Order page.
We translated into Spanish our Illinois Stalking No Contact Orders page and our Illinois Civil No Contact Orders (for Victims of Sexual Assault).
We updated our Maine Know the Laws pages based on recent changes to Maine laws. For example, we added new reasons why a person can be prohibited from having a firearm in our State Gun Laws pages; we added information about suing an abuser for damages to rental property in our Suing Your Abuser page; we added information about financial exploitation to our Protection from Abuse Orders (for the elderly/dependent/incapacitated); and we added 5 new crimes to our Crimes page and ME Statutes page.
We updated our Louisiana Protective Orders (for Domestic Abuse) pages based on changes in Louisiana laws, adding new information to What types of protective orders are there? How long do they last? and to What can I do if the abuser violates the order? We also created a new question in our Protective Orders (for Stalking) page called What can I do if the abuser violates the order?
We added information to our Oregon Sexual Abuse Protective Orders page.
We added a new question to our Kentucky Custody page called If my child was conceived from sexual assault, can the offender get custody or visitation?
We updated our Kansas Custody section based on recent legislative changes, including augmenting the question How will a judge make a decision about custody, residency, and parenting time?
We translated into Spanish the restraining order information for the state of Washington including: WA Domestic Violence Orders for Protection (DVOP), WA Sexual Assault Protection Orders, WA Stalking Protection Orders and WA Civil Anti-Harassment Orders.
We added a new section to our Iowa Restraining Orders page called Protective Orders (Based on Elder Abuse).
Based on changes to D.C. law, we updated our D.C. State Gun Laws page.
Based on changes to Arkansas law, we updated and improved our Arkansas State Gun Laws page, in English and Spanish.
We substantially revised our Georgia State Gun Laws page, updating and rewriting the information we had in that section.
We revised our Washington, D.C. Restraining Orders and Custody pages, updating the information we had in those sections.
We substantially revised our Washington Custody page, improving the information we had and adding a new section called The effect of military deployment on custody/visitation. Our next step is to translate it into Spanish!
We translated into Spanish all of the legal and non-legal resources and courthouse information on our Oklahoma Where to Find Help page, which includes more than 150 records.
August 2015
We updated all of the legal and non-legal resources and courthouse information on our Oklahoma Where to Find Help page.
We have begun to translate all of the information for an additional state, Washington! So far, we translated all of the sections in our Restraining Orders page, which includes Domestic Violence Orders for Protection page, the Sexual Assault Protection Orders page, the Civil Anti-Harassment Orders page, and the Stalking Protection Orders page.
We added information to the Civil No Contact Orders page on our Illinois Restraining Orders section and added several additional statutes related to civil no contact orders to our IL Statutes page.
We added information to the question How can a restraining order help me? on our Connecticut Restraining Orders page based on a 2015 change to the law, which allows the judge to order additional protections in temporary and permanent restraining orders.
We updated all of the legal and non-legal resources in Spanish and English on our Arkansas Where to Find Help page. In addition, we added 5 new organizations that provide services to domestic violence victims and survivors on our AR State and Local Programs page and 2 new legal resources on our AR Finding a Lawyer page.
We updated our California Housing Laws section in English and Spanish to reflect a recent change in the law that requires a victim who is terminating his/her lease to pay rent only for the next 14 days instead of 30 days.
We updated a few questions on our Arizona State Gun Laws page based on legislative changes to include two more legal reasons why a person might be prohibited from having a gun in his/her possession. We also changed information on our Arizona Custody page to reflect changes in the law regarding relocation of a child. All changes were made in English and Spanish.
We added additional cyberstalking resources to our Stalking/Cyberstalking page in English and Spanish.
We updated our Arkansas Domestic Violence Orders of Protection section in Spanish and English based on amendments to Arkansas law; changes include adding in-laws as a possible family or household member against whom an order of protection can be sought. We added the new crime in Arkansas called Unlawful distribution of sexual images or recordings to our Crimes page and our AR Statutes pages.
After being contacted by NIWAP to add them as a resource to WomensLaw.org, we added the National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project (NIWAP), both in English and Spanish, to our Helping Others page, under the Lawyers section.
July 2015
We created a new section in Washington called Stalking Protection Orders.
We updated all the legal and non-legal resources in Spanish and English on our Washington, DC Where to Find Help page. In addition, we now have 5 new organizations on our DC State and Local Programs and 5 new legal resources on our DC Finding a Lawyer page.
We updated the contact information and added descriptions for the 39 organizations that provide services to domestic violence victims and survivors on our Arkansas State and Local Programs page.
We added a new Danger Assessment page in our Learn About Abuse section, where users can learn more about some of the factors that indicate a victim is at greater risk of being seriously injured or killed by an abuser.
We re-wrote and greatly improved the content of the Washington Domestic Violence Orders for Protection page, the Sexual Assault Protection Orders page, and the Civil Anti-Harassment Orders page and created the Stalking Protection Orders page.
We expanded our New Hampshire Stalking Protective Orders page, going from one question to seven. Check it out!
We added a new question to our Ohio Domestic Violence Protection Orders page called Can I file for a protection order against a minor?
Based on changes to Minnesota laws, we added new information to our Minnesota Orders for Protection page, Harassment Restraining Orders page, and State Gun Laws page, including a new question entitled What will happen to the abuser’s firearms if the judge includes a firearm restriction in my order for protection?
We revised our Marital / Partner Rape page in English and Spanish, improving the content and updating the statistics regarding the occurrence of sexual coercion/rape within intimate relationships.
We added the crime of “Malicious or unlawful assault; assault; battery” to the West Virginia Crimes page.
Based on statutory changes to Alabama law that took effect in June 2015, we updated almost all of the Know the Laws sections in Alabama, adding new questions and revising others. We also added two new statutes to the Alabama Statutes page.
Inspired by an Email Hotline inquiry, we just added a new section to our Oregon pages about the Housing Laws that protect victims of stalking, sexual assault and domestic violence.
June 2015
We updated all of the Illinois State and Local Programs (more than 60 of them), adding descriptions of services provided and additional programs - we also translated them all into Spanish.
With the help of the Puerto Rico Coalition, Coordinadora Paz para la Mujer, we were able to update all of the 100 legal and non-legal resources that we list on our Where to Find Help pages for victims and survivors of Puerto Rico. In addition, we now have 17 new State and Local Programs and 19 new resources on our Finding a Lawyer page.
We added the crime of custodial interference to our Oregon Crimes page.
In response to an inquiry on the Email Hotline, we added a new question in Spanish and English to our VAWA Laws for Abuse Victims page called Can I file for a VAWA self-petition if I am in another country?
At the suggestion of people who wrote to us, we added a new resource to our National Organizations page, in Spanish and English, for Take Back the Night Foundation and the Support, Advocacy & Resource Center to our Washington Local Programs page. We also updated and translated into Spanish all of the resources on Finding a Lawyer page in California (78 of them!) in English and Spanish.
May 2015
Need to find something on the WomensLaw.org website? Check out our completely new Search function! The “Search” button is accessible from any page, in the top right-hand corner of the website.
We updated the Relief from Abuse Orders page for Vermont.
We updated and completely revised the Restraining Orders page for the U.S. Virgin Islands and added several new crimes to our U.S. Virgin Islands Statutes page and Crimes page.
We improved the question entitled What is the legal definition of domestic violence in NJ? on our New Jersey Restraining Orders page by linking each crime listed in that question to the statute that defines it.
We updated all of the State and Local Programs in California (over 200 of them!) in English and Spanish.
We re-wrote and greatly improved the content of two questions on our Washington Custody page: Can a parent who committed domestic violence, sexual assault, or child abuse get decision-making powers or parenting time? and How will a judge make a decision about custody?
We updated the Restraining Orders page in Tennessee and added several new crimes to our Tennessee Statutes page and Crimes page.
We added the crime of “Unlawful dissemination or sale of images of another” to the Virginia Crimes page and Virginia Statutes page.
April 2015
Check out our overhauled Choosing and Working with a Lawyer page! We re-wrote most of the sections, adding new information, and improving the overall content and translated the new page into Spanish.
We improved our Sexual Harassment in the Workplace page in English and Spanish.
We updated the sheriff department listings (in English and Spanish) on our Where to Find Help page in the following states: MA, NJ, NM, WA, FL, NY, OK, PA, TX, NC, IL, GA, CO, AR. More states to come!
March 2015
We added new information in English and Spanish to the Arkansas Custody question called If a custody order is already in place, how can I get it changed?
On our way to completing our translation of our Georgia, we translated our Divorce section into Spanish and our Moving to Another State with a Family Violence Protective Order section into Spanish.
We added new information in Michigan to the question Can a PPO be changed, terminated or extended?
We added some information to our Maryland Domestic Violence Protective Orders page about the right of a victim to get law enforcement to accompany him/her to the home to retrieve belongings and medication even without a protective order.
