Roberts & Winter’s Bipartisan Victim Protections Legislation Clears Committee
Roberts & Winter’s Bipartisan Victim Protections Legislation Clears Committee
DENVER, CO – Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved bipartisan legislation sponsored by Senator Dylan Roberts, D-Frisco, and Assistant Majority Leader Faith Winter, D-Broomfield, that would reduce barriers for survivors of domestic violence, sexual violence, stalking, and other crimes when seeking civil protection orders.
“Too often, civil protection orders get slowed down or outright denied due to unnecessarily arduous processes, leaving survivors vulnerable to future harm,” Roberts said. “This bipartisan bill makes commonsense updates to civil protection order processes to help ensure survivors pursuing safety measures are better protected from additional abuse and violence.”
“Civil protection orders are a critical safety tool for survivors of domestic and sexual violence,” said Winter. “I’m grateful to the many brave advocates and survivors for their work on this important legislation, and I’m proud that we’re able to reduce barriers and ensure survivors receive the support and protection they need.”
Increased victim protections under HB24-1122 include:
Broadening the definition of domestic violence, changing sexual abuse to sexual violence including sexual harassment, and reframing these forms of violence as patterns of behavior rather than discrete actions;
Clarifying and narrowing reasons why a civil protection order may be denied and directing judges to make a temporary protection order permanent without requiring additional evidence of testimony from the survivor when the respondent doesn’t appear at the hearing;
Prohibiting a court from serving an abuser with a notice of a civil protection order unless the protection order is granted, improving the safety of victims after they take action against their abuser;
Addressing temporary care and control of any shared children in the civil protection order when requested by one of the parties and prohibiting judicial officers from redirecting survivors to file in a district court instead;
Prohibiting the court from hearing a motion to dismiss or modify a civil protection order if filed incorrectly;
And preventing survivors from paying their abuser’s attorney’s fees.
HB24-1122 will now move to the Senate floor for further consideration. You can follow the bill’s progress HERE.