Law Commons^™

What's Love Got To Do With It: Securing Access To Justice For Teens, Lisa V. Martin

Faculty Publications

During the past 15 years, researchers have documented the pervasiveness, severity, and lasting impact of dating violence on American adolescents. Studies also have shown teens to be firmly resistant to disclosing abuse to adults. Nonetheless, civil protection orders - the civil legal remedy most commonly relied upon to redress intimate partner violence in adult relationships - often remain inaccessible to abused teens. State protection order statutes exclude teens from their protections by restricting rights to standing by age and the relationship between the parties. When states grant teens standing, they often deter teens from pursuing the protections extended to them …

Securing Civil Protection Orders For Teens When Laws Ignore Teens, Lisa V. Martin

Faculty Publications

Despite the pervasiveness of violence in teen relationships, civil protection order statutes largely ignore teens. The accessibility of protection orders for teens depends primarily on the scope of their rights to standing and legal capacity to pursue claims for protection. Because states largely fail to detail expressly the circumstances under which teens are accorded standing to seek protection orders and legal capacity to represent their own interests in related court proceedings, the accessibility of protection orders for teens in most states remains in flux.

This article explores legal principles and policy arguments that support the extension of standing and legal …