M v. O

D.C. Court of Appeals - decision pending

This case presents the problem of victims being revictimized by the courts.  In this case DV LEAP is assisting a professional woman who retained counsel for her civil protection order trial, but was unable to pay all the fees and cannot afford to pay for an appeal.  After the victim was brutally beaten by her ex-boyfriend, she sought a protection order. He cross-petitioned for an order against her, and a temporary protection order was issued. He was subsequently criminally convicted of assault, but the judge repeatedly chastised the victim for “provoking” his extreme violence.

Ultimately, in addition to issuing a CPO against the abuser, the judge also entered a CPO against the victim, stating that he was protecting her from herself (by keeping her away from the abuser), and also found her guilty of contempt for violations of the temporary order. He also denied her any attorney’s fees on the ground that she should not have litigated the civil protection order case at all.

DV LEAP is excited to be working on this case, which in many ways represents a paradigmatic example of what has been going wrong for victims in the courts. The case presents the opportunity to challenge the court’s victim-blaming attitudes and some of the ways those attitudes affect procedural fairness in these cases. The case was placed with two law firms - one to represent the party and the other to write an amicus brief on behalf of other domestic violence organizations, with DV LEAP as co-counsel.

 Please click here to read the amicus brief.