Womens Legal Resource

The title alone makes you shudder. More than 1 million beaten and counting is more the target.  Domestic Violence is not easy to talk about. I recently had a conversation with a woman and explained my own person experience with Domestic Violence and the look on her face was shear terror.

Many of you who read this blog are well aware of my issues with DV, but to those of you who are new to Women’s Legal Resource, I often share with our readers my life living with domestic violence. Just recently, my ex was convicted for criminal death threats. But it took from April until this month for that to take place. Back and forth to court and then sent home again. Don’t get me wrong, the City Attorney’s Dan Kleban and Lisa Merikian, both did a wonderful job and I am very grateful for how the whole case was handled, now my daughter and I can rest a little easier for now.  But why should it take five months? The anxiety alone is enough.  There were no advocates available to go to court with me. The victim witness office for the Van Nuys Superior court only had one advocate, and they were useless. This needs to change, there needs to be more advocates for victims of violence available who are properly trained to work with victims.  That is the only complaint I have about the court.

The newly appointed White House Advisor to the Violence Against Women Act, Lynn Rosenthal who was placed in that position as a buffer, seems to have little or no voice at all and isn’t in the position to make the changes necessary or to help those who have fallen through the cracks. Why does the court have one advocate Ms. Rosenthal?  Change has to happen. The system is failing women across the country and my district court had one advocate. How many women filed dv complaints? More than one that’s for sure.  I believe our system needs to have stronger protocol on how Domestic Violence is identified. Doctors, hospitals and employers could help save the lives of thousands of women. In a  Newsweek  article dated September 16, 2009,  the writers suggested that dv screening would be controversial.  I don’t agree that DV screening is controversial. If a woman is coming into the ER more than once or twice within a six month period, questions need to be asked. Physicians screen for HIV/AIDS and other  sexually transmitted diseases, why not screen for Domestic Violence. When you see a child with bruises, you are required to report it to the proper authorities, why not the same protocol for Domestic Violence victims?

To read this article click here .

I am lucky, I received the help from Victims Compensation, specifically Marlene Dederick and Linda Hanley but certainly not without a fight. How many women were not so lucky? That’s what needs to be changed Ms. Rosenthal, the women who have or who are falling through the cracks.

Tags: alexis a. moore, City Attorney Kleban, City Attorney Merikian, domestic violence, Lynn Rosenthal, Randi Rosen, Survivors in Action, Van Nuys Superior Court, VAWA, VCBGC, Vice President Joe Biden, Victims of Crime Compensationn, White House Advisor, Womens Legal Resource

This entry was posted by womenslegal on Thursday, September 17th, 2009 at 2:16 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.