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A critical aspect of judicial response to domestic violence and sexual assault is responding to the needs of victims/survivors. This area encompasses a wide range of topics, including trauma-informed justice systems, safety planning, confidentiality, child custody and victim-centered response. In this area, judges can find resources and assistance on many foundational victim/survivor issues.

Immigrant Survivors of Domestic And Sexual Violence in Your Courtroom: Family Court and Civil Protection Order Cases

This webinar for judicial officials will provide an overview of how immigration issues related to domestic violence intersect with civil proceedings. At the end of this webinar, participants will be better able to:

  • Explain the dynamics of immigration-related abuse
  • Examine how immigration issues may impact judicial proceedings related to DV/SA, including the U visa certification process
  • Assess how criminal and civil findings intersect with an immigration matter

Immigrant Survivors of Domestic/Sexual Violence in Your Courtroom: Introduction to the Immigration System and Status Options

This webinar for judicial officials will provide an overview of the immigration system and the status options for victims of domestic and sexual violence through a discussion of the basic avenues to immigration status and how what happens in court may help or harm survivors’ ability to gain safety through secure immigration status.

Protecting Survivors’ Economic Security in Later Life: Divorce, QDROs, and Coercive Control

Concerns about long-term economic security can make it difficult for survivors of domestic violence to leave abusive relationships, and abusers often exhibit economic control and coercion over victims. We’ll explore how survivors can obtain part of a former spouse’s retirement benefit at divorce through a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO), and how abusers exercise coercive control by hindering QDRO access. This session will help advocates working with an increasingly aging population to better understand the role that retirement benefits play in promoting survivors’ long-term economic security, to identify legal resources specific to retirement, and to support survivors seeking to obtain a portion of an abuser’s earned retirement benefit at divorce. Judges will also benefit from an increased understanding of how access to retirement benefits promotes survivors’ long-term economic stability and greater awareness of how the QDRO process operates once parties have left the courtroom.

Protecting Victims and Communities in Domestic Violence Cases: Collaborative Strategies

Is your community doing all it can to prevent firearms-related violence perpetrated by abusers in DV cases? Are you encountering challenges to implementing existing state, tribal, and federal firearms restrictions? Learn about strategies for effective implementation at all stages of civil and criminal domestic violence cases, as well as a new national project, the Firearms Pilot Site Initiative, through which the NCJFCJ and other national experts will provide communities with in-depth TA, training, and other support.