On April 20, 2011, we were proud to watch Governor Gregoire sign House Bill 1565 into law. This bill, one of our top priorities for the Washington legislative session, will help domestic violence victims keep long-term protection orders against their abusers.
Protection orders restrain domestic violence perpetrators from coming near or having contact with their victims. These orders are an essential tool for interrupting an abuser’s ability to commit domestic violence. In cases where an abuser poses a long-term danger, courts may issue protection orders that last for years or even permanently. But last September, the Washington Supreme Court issued a decision (In re Marriage of Freeman) that put every long-term protection order in the state at risk. In effect, the decision meant that if an abuser asked a court to terminate a long-term protection order, the victim would have to come back to court and demonstrate all over again that she had a current “reasonable fear” of imminent harm by the abuser.
The decision wrongly put the burden on the victim to show why she was still afraid, rather than requiring the abuser to prove he had changed. The ruling put such a low burden on the abuser that some lawyers believed that no protection order in the state was secure anymore.
We knew we could not let this ruling stand. So in partnership with our allies at the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence (WSCADV), we got to work on drafting legislation to overturn this decision. While there were many twists and turns along the way, we were able to get a strong version of the bill passed unanimously by both houses of the Legislature.
The new law specifies that a long-term protection order (one that is issued for more than two years) may not be terminated unless the abuser proves that there has been a substantial change in circumstances which makes it unlikely that he or she will resume domestic violence. The bill also makes it clear that a victim has no burden of proving a current reasonable fear of imminent harm by the abuser in order to keep a long-term protection order in place.
To prevent an abuser from harassing and intimidating the victim by bringing frivolous motions, the bill requires the abuser to make a threshold showing that there is adequate cause for the court to hear a motion to terminate a long-term protection order. Moreover, to deter frivolous motions even further, the bill authorizes courts to award attorneys’ fees to a victim who must defend against a motion to terminate or modify a long-term order.
We are thrilled to get the law changed within a matter of months of the state Supreme Court’s decision. Thanks to Representative David Frockt for sponsoring House Bill 1565, and to everyone who contacted their legislators to urge them to support the bill. Special thanks to our lobbyist Pam Crone, who advocated tirelessly for the bill on behalf of both Legal Voice and WSCADV.
