Just “A Piece of Paper?”: Domestic Violence Peace and Protective Orders in Montgomery County District Courts (Second Monitoring Report)
In this follow-up report, Court Watch documents 510 hearings and measures changes in the most critical areas outlined in our first report of October 2011. Notably, in areas of court process and procedure, there have been significant improvements, including a sharp increase in use of staggered exits and the introduction of an English/Spanish audio explaining how a hearing will work. Judicial demeanor has also greatly improved, with fewer incidents of disrespect. However, individual judges varied widely in their use of warnings to individual respondents about criminal penalties for violations and firearms possession, as they did in questioning petitioners asking to dismiss their cases about their safety. The result was an overall negligible change in the numbers documenting use of these best practices in our first report. Our data also raised additional concerns. Of the 510 cases we heard, there were 380 where children were involved, highlighting the dangers to children of witnessing domestic violence and the need for courts to notify petitioners of off-site resources such as The Family Justice Center and the Safe Start counseling program for children.
Protecting Victims of Domestic Violence in Montgomery County: Challenges and Opportunities with Protective and Peace Orders
In this report, Court Watch’s first, we examine data collected by our volunteer monitors in District Court
protective and peace order hearings between January and July of 2011. While we document the
behavior of judges and court employees and are concerned by the rudeness and dismissiveness of a
small number of judges and bailiffs, that is not the bulk of this report. Using the nationally recognized
“Guide to Improving Practice” as our reference, we identify several fundamental best practices that
impact the short and long-term safety of victims and the likelihood of their returning to court and assess
how often judges utilize them.