Lawyers

If you are a lawyer who represents victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, here are some resources you may find helpful. Please also see our listings under the Places that Help tab at the top of this page.

Resources from the American Bar Association (ABA):

ABA Standards of Practice for Lawyers Representing Victims of Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Stalking in Civil Protection Order Cases
Standards presented as aspirational guidelines for the operation of legal service providers, pro bono legal service providers, and individual lawyers representing victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking in civil protection order cases. They are based on the combined and distilled judgment of individuals with substantial experience in the area. See also the ABA Tool for Attorneys to Screen for Domestic Violence.

Charts prepared by ABA Commission on Domestic Violence
Charts summarizing statutes from all 50 states regarding topics such as domestic violence and custody, sexual assault, stalking, dating violence, trafficking, and tenant protections for domestic violence victims.

Immigration and Domestic Violence Laws

ASISTA Immigration Technical Assistance Project
For help with immigration issues, ASISTA gives assistance to advocates and attorneys facing complex legal problems in advocating for immigrant survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.

National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project (NIWAP)
The National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project (NIWAP) educates, trains, offers technical assistance and public policy advocacy, and conducts research that will assist a wide range of professionals working at the federal, state, and local levels who work with and/or whose work affects immigrant women and children. NIWAP provides training and technical assistance on a broad range of issues of importance to immigrant women and children, including VAWA immigration and confidentiality, family law, protection orders, public benefits, language access, cultural competency, and access to services, including shelter, transitional housing, health care, and education.

Legal Momentum: Battered Immigrant Women Program
The Immigrant Women Program is the nation’s expert on the rights and services available to immigrant victims of domestic and other violence. It shares this expertise through comprehensive materials and trainings for lawyers and advocates nationwide, and leads advocacy for legal protections, social services, and economic justice for immigrant women.

General Legal Resources

Legal Momentum: Employment rights for victims
Information for each state on workplace/employment protections for domestic violence victims.

Legal Resource Center on Violence Against Women
The LRC works to obtain legal representation for domestic violence survivors in interstate custody cases and to provide technical assistance to domestic violence victim advocates and attorneys in such cases.

National Judicial Education Program
Offers a manual entitled “Intimate Partner Sexual Abuse: Adjudicating this Hidden Dimension of Domestic Violence.” Free webcourse and resource for judges, other justice system professionals and advocates.

Battered Women’s Justice Project
BWJP is the national resource center on civil and criminal justice responses to intimate partner violence (IPV). BWJP provides technical assistance and training to advocates, civil attorneys, judges and related court personnel, law enforcement officers, prosecutors, probation officers, batterers intervention program staff, and defense attorneys; as well as to policymakers, the media, and victims, including incarcerated victims, and their families and friends. BWJP also assists tribal and military personnel who fulfill equivalent positions in their respective institutional responses to IPV.

National Defense Center for Criminalized Survivors
In partnership with BWJP, provides customized technical assistance to battered women charged with crimes and to members of their defense teams (defense attorneys, advocates, expert witnesses and others).

Stop Violence Against Women - A project by The Advocates for Human Rights
Articles about violence against women, including domestic violence, sexual assault, trafficking and sexual harassment.

The Hague Domestic Violence Project
The Hague Domestic Violence Project has developed practice resources and informational guides for general understanding of Hague Convention cases, as well as a brief bank and links to Hague Convention provisions for specific citation. There is also an Attorney’s Practice Guide to representing victims of domestic violence, as well as a “bench guide” project to assist judges.