After years of extreme physical abuse, starvation, and brutal deprivation, 8-year-old Tommy Valva died of hypothermia after being forced to sleep in the garage all night with temperatures below 20 degrees, then being soaked with cold water. Tommy’s father had been awarded custody and authorities refused to protect the child despite the mother’s repeated returns to court, calls to the police, and numerous teachers’ calls to child welfare. (2020) SOURCE: ABC7NY
The Challenge Nationwide, family courts frequently order children into the care of an abusive parent, too often with outcomes all the more tragic because they were preventable. More than 100 children have been killed by a parent in the United States after a court ordered a dangerous parent unsupervised access to the child, over the objections of the other parent. The National Family Violence Law Center (NFVLC) at the George Washington University seeks to change family court practices to keep children safe. Using empirical research, policy development, and collaborative advocacy, the NFVLC educates professionals, the media, and the public, and advances critical legal reforms and systemic change in courts’ responses to families with a history of both adult or child abuse. The NFVLC is the only organization in the nation with legal expertise on adult and child abuse and scholarly research that builds an empirical foundation for these much-needed system reforms. That breadth and depth of expertise makes the NFVLC exceptional in the field of family violence. National Family Violence Law Center // 3
Kayden Mancuso, 7, was bludgeoned with a barbell and then suffocated by her biological father during a courtordered visit. The Pennsylvania court had minimized the mother’s reports of the father’s threats to kill the family, assaults against the mother, criminal charges of aggravated assault, his being banned from Kayden’s school for threatening and harassing behavior, and an expert opinion warning against unsupervised visitation. SOURCE: MULTIPLE SOURCES
Our Research and Advocacy
The National Family Violence Law Center propels systemic change to ensure that courts deliver safe and beneficial outcomes for children in family court and related matters.
Research, Awareness, and Public Education While tragic outcomes may receive publicity, until recently there was a complete lack of data on family court practices that may put children at risk. The five-year study Child Custody Outcomes in Cases Involving Abuse and Alienation Allegations, undertaken by NFVLC Founder and Director Joan Meier and her team and funded by the National Institute of Justice, changed that. As the first-ever study to examine family courts’ responses to both child abuse and domestic violence claims, it produced stunning and troubling empirical findings. For instance: • Family courts reject approximately 70 percent of mothers’ reports of child physical or sexual abuse. • When mothers reported child sexual abuse by the father and the father responded by claiming they were committing “parental alienation” by making such allegations, courts only believed the abuse and protected the child in 1 out of 49 cases. The study has delivered the first-ever set of national data that objectively quantify what family courts are doing in cases involving claims of abuse. Results of that groundbreaking study form the catalyst for the NFVLC’s work. The NFVLC’s top priority is to generate scholarly and practice-oriented publications using these data, along with professional and public education to highlight the troubling findings. This high-impact work already has generated public attention. From an article in The Washington Post that explores the study’s findings, to NFVLC Director Meier’s featured commentary in an HBO documentary about the decades-old abuse allegations against filmmaker Woody Allen, the center has been sought out by national media outlets to shed light on the study’s real-world implications for families.
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Legislative Clearinghouse The center seeks to raise awareness and to catalyze change. With passage in 2018 of the H. Con. Res. 72 Resolution on Child Safety in Family Courts, the U.S. House of Representatives acknowledged that family courts are failing at-risk children and encouraged states to adopt specific approaches. This has motivated state advocates and lawmakers to work on incorporating the resolution’s recommendations into binding state laws. To assist in that mission, the NFVLC manages a Legislative Clearinghouse designed to provide a national resource to assist state and federal policy reform efforts aimed at better protecting children in family courts. The clearinghouse serves advocates and policymakers in the growing number of states reeling from child homicides by an abusive parent and seeking to improve family courts’ adjudications to reduce harm to children. Interest in the clearinghouse is robust. The NFVLC is actively assisting advocates and lawmakers in Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and West Virginia, with frequent new requests from other states.
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Litigation The center: Produces legal briefs and collaborates on amicus (friend-of-the-court) briefs in support of important cases in state appeals courts, the Supreme Court, and federal courts adjudicating Hague Abduction Convention claims involving family violence;
Serves as a resource in state appellate cases regarding family violence and/or the lack of scientific evidence surrounding parental alienation claims; and
Provides consultation and technical assistance to parties and attorneys litigating cases involving custody and abuse.
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Our Leadership
Professor Joan Meier FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR
Joan Meier is a leading expert on domestic violence and the law. For nearly 20 years, she has spearheaded advocacy on behalf of adult and child victims of abuse in the U.S. Supreme Court and state appeals courts, trained legal and non-legal professionals on best practices in domestic violence cases, and published cutting-edge research on the subject. Most of Professor Meier’s litigation, policy, and research work has focused on the plight of children at risk from an abusive parent in family court litigation, where courts often refuse to acknowledge the danger and subject children to ongoing abuse—and, in some cases, death. In addition to her appointment as a Professor of Clinical Law at GW Law, Professor Meier launched and led the Domestic Violence Legal Empowerment and Appeals Project (DV LEAP) from 2003-2019. DV LEAP provides appellate representation and amicus briefs on behalf of survivors of domestic violence. During Professor Meier’s tenure, DV LEAP contributed to 11 Supreme Court cases and close to 100 state appellate cases; conducted hundreds of trainings and presentations for judges, lawyers, and others; and provided extensive consulting and litigation support for thousands of litigants, attorneys, advocates, and other professionals. Professor Meier’s previous positions include clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and associate at Jenner & Block and at Winthrop, Stimson, Putnam & Roberts. She is a graduate of Harvard College magna cum laude and University of Chicago Law School cum laude.
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Danielle Pollack POLICY MANAGER, NFVLC LEGISLATIVE CLEARINGHOUSE
Danielle Pollack works in collaboration with state and federal lawmakers, partner organizations, and families to create comprehensive child-centric policy reform and provide public education on family courts. After earning a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Pollack began her policy work in Europe with the chief negotiator of the Oslo Peace Accords. She worked closely with UN agencies, the World Bank, a coalition of 30 mayors from every continent, and many civil society organizations. After nearly a decade in Europe, Pollack returned to the U.S. to focus on family court system reforms and child sexual assault issues. She launched and spearheaded the family court reform initiative with CHILD USA beginning in 2017 before coming to NFVLC in 2021 to help advance nationwide reforms and lead the center’s Legislative Clearinghouse. Her short documentary film, Voices for Reform, has been used to raise awareness on family court issues, including at the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), universities internationally, and with federal and state lawmakers.
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Hera McLeod pleaded with a Maryland family court judge to keep her 15-month-old son, Prince, away from her abusive ex-boyfriend. The court required her to turn over Prince for unsupervised visits. The ex-boyfriend was later convicted of capital murder of the toddler. (2012) SOURCE: DESERET NEWS
Support Our Work Please join the National Family Violence Law Center and help us meet the call to transform court responses to family violence. GW Law provides space, administrative and communications support, as well as other resources. Philanthropy is critical to support staff positions, and additional investments are needed to further advance the center’s research, convenings, litigation, outreach, and organizing activities. To make a contribution to the NFVLC, please visit go.gwu.edu/supportgwfamilylaw.
Resources Center for Judicial Excellence: centerforjudicialexcellence.org “Child Custody Outcomes in Cases Involving Parental Alienation and Abuse Allegations”: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3448062 House of Representatives of H.Con.Res.72 on Child Safety in the Family Courts: www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-concurrent-resolution/72/text The Washington Post’s article on Professor Meier’s work: www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/a-gendered-trap-when-mothers-allege-child-abuseby-fathers-the-mothers-often-lose-custody-study-shows/2019/07/28/8f811220-af1d-11e9-bc5ce73b603e7f38_story.html Voices For Reform short documentary film: https://vimeo.com/366864681 National Family Violence Law Center // 11
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