California has signed into law Assembly Bill 1753, the Survivor Pathways to Safety Act, a comprehensive overhaul of the state's court protective order system. The law implements 10 recommendations from the California Department of Justice's Office of Gun Violence Prevention aimed at making protective orders more accessible to abuse survivors and harder for dangerous individuals to violate.
The bill addresses long-standing barriers in the protective order system, according to California Attorney General Rob Bonta. The law allows survivors to file protective order petitions electronically and participate in court hearings remotely, removes obstacles that required survivors to give dangerous individuals advance notice of protective order petitions, and improves coordination between courts and law enforcement in enforcing the orders.
Key provisions strengthen firearm restrictions by preventing people convicted of hate crimes, who violate Gun Violence Restraining Orders or other protective orders, or who make criminal threats of violence from purchasing or possessing firearms for at least 10 years following conviction. The law also requires courts to access criminal history and protective order databases when evaluating whether a respondent illegally possesses firearms.
According to Assemblymember Catherine Stefani, who authored the bill, "Too often, survivors get a protective order and assume they're safe, only to find that the system meant to back it up is broken. This bill closes the gap between what the law promises and what survivors actually experience."