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Rainbow Services DV We provide trauma-informed services for survivors impacted by the cycle of domestic violence.

Governor Newsom signed AB 1961 by Assemblymember Patrick Ahrens on September 30. It changes how workplace violence restr...
10/18/2026

Governor Newsom signed AB 1961 by Assemblymember Patrick Ahrens on September 30. It changes how workplace violence restraining orders work in California.

Before, an employer could seek an order on behalf of an employee. Under AB 1961, an employer can seek a single order on behalf of all employees at a workplace, or at a location where a group of employees does its main work, when harassment, unlawful violence or a credible threat of violence is directed at that place. The employer does not have to name any individual employee as a protected party.

Domestic violence does not always stay at home. When someone is targeting a survivor at work, this gives employers a way to protect the whole workplace without putting one person's name at the center of the filing 📌

Read the bill: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1961

Governor Newsom signed AB 2261 by Assemblymember Diane Dixon on September 27. It expands who a criminal protective order...
10/17/2026

Governor Newsom signed AB 2261 by Assemblymember Diane Dixon on September 27. It expands who a criminal protective order in California can cover.

Under existing law, a court can issue an order restraining a defendant from contact with the victim. AB 2261 lets the court also consider restraining the defendant from contact with members of the victim's family or household.

For survivors, the people closest to them can get pulled in, whether that is a child, a parent, or a relative who has given them a place to stay 📌

Rainbow's on-site legal services work with survivors across Los Angeles County on protective and restraining orders. Our 24 hour hotline is 310-547-9343.

Read the bill: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB2261

The Los Angeles Times reported on October 9 that private companies are offering lump sums to survivors in Los Angeles Co...
10/16/2026

The Los Angeles Times reported on October 9 that private companies are offering lump sums to survivors in Los Angeles County's $4 billion s*x abuse settlement in exchange for the right to collect their future payouts.

The settlement covers people who say they were abused as children in county facilities such as juvenile halls. Payouts are due in installments and have been delayed, and court filings describe survivors who need the money to stay housed or to pay for medical treatment.

According to the Times, more than 180 survivors have moved to sell their payouts to about a dozen companies, and most will receive about 80 percent of the amount they sell. In California, a judge has to approve any such sale and find it in the claimant's best interest.

Nearly all of the lawsuits were filed under pseudonyms, yet survivors describe a steady stream of calls and messages from companies that will not say how they got their contact information 💬

Read the reporting: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-10-09/la-county-s*x-abuse-settlement-payout-loans

Governor Newsom signed AB 1657 on September 20. It changes how California courts handle emergency, or ex parte, domestic...
10/15/2026

Governor Newsom signed AB 1657 on September 20. It changes how California courts handle emergency, or ex parte, domestic violence restraining orders.

Under the new law, a court cannot require that the person to be restrained be notified before the court accepts or decides an emergency application. It also cannot require the person asking for protection to explain why they did not give notice, and courts cannot keep any rule, form or practice that conflicts with this.

An emergency order exists for the moment someone needs protection right away. Requiring a warning to the other side first works against that purpose 📌

The bill was authored by Assemblymember Chris Rogers and is Chapter 368 of the Statutes of 2026.

Rainbow's on-site legal services help survivors across Los Angeles County with restraining orders. Our 24 hour hotline is 310-547-9343.

Read the bill: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1657

Domestic Violence Awareness Month is a good time to say plainly what Rainbow Services does.We have served survivors of d...
10/14/2026

Domestic Violence Awareness Month is a good time to say plainly what Rainbow Services does.

We have served survivors of domestic violence across Los Angeles County since 1983. In fiscal year 2024 to 2025, that meant 3,867 people.

Our work includes 78 beds of emergency shelter and transitional housing, a 24 hour confidential hotline, case management, and on-site legal services such as help preparing for a restraining order hearing. We also offer basic support alongside parents and guardians, so their children are cared for while the family finds stability.

If you or someone you know needs help, call 310-547-9343, any hour of the day 💜

Learn more: https://www.rainbowservicesdv.org

Tesco introduced paid safe leave for staff experiencing domestic abuse, the Guardian reported on October 2, making it th...
10/13/2026

Tesco introduced paid safe leave for staff experiencing domestic abuse, the Guardian reported on October 2, making it the first UK supermarket to do so.

Employees can take up to three days of paid leave, used flexibly, to attend court hearings, arrange emergency accommodation, change locks, secure childcare or separate their finances. Tesco will not require formal evidence, and managers across the business, which employs 300,000 people in the UK, have been trained to spot the signs of abuse and refer staff to specialist services. The policy was developed with the union Usdaw.

“No one should have to choose between their job and their safety,” said Emma Taylor, Tesco’s chief people officer.

Paid safe leave already exists in law elsewhere. According to the Guardian, Northern Ireland passed a law in 2020 giving survivors 10 days of paid leave, and similar laws exist in Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines.

For survivors in Los Angeles County, a court date or a move can mean missing work. If you need help planning around that, our 24 hour hotline is 310-547-9343 📞

Read the reporting: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/oct/02/tesco-supermarket-paid-safe-leave-domestic-abuse

The Crown Prosecution Service in England and Wales announced on September 29 that every domestic abuse survivor will be ...
10/13/2026

The Crown Prosecution Service in England and Wales announced on September 29 that every domestic abuse survivor will be offered a dedicated victim liaison officer, a service previously only available to survivors of r**e and s*xual offences.

The change makes two services permanent in every CPS area. The Universal Service gives all victims more frequent, better communication. The Enhanced Service adds a liaison officer for domestic abuse survivors from the point of charge through to trial, and for the first time the CPS will contact survivors the way they prefer.

Both were piloted from 2023, including in Mersey-Cheshire.

This is not a California change. We are sharing it because the problem it addresses is not unique to the UK. The Attorney General said she has heard "time and again" from victims and frontline organisations about where communication falls short 🔎

Read the announcement: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cps-to-give-all-domestic-abuse-victims-a-dedicated-liaison-officer-nationwide

Governor Newsom signed AB 1267 on September 30, banning child marriage in California. Once it takes effect, no one under...
10/12/2026

Governor Newsom signed AB 1267 on September 30, banning child marriage in California. Once it takes effect, no one under 18 will be able to marry in the state.

Survivors and advocacy groups campaigned for this for roughly a decade.

Why it matters to an organization that works on domestic violence: a child in a marriage they did not freely choose may have no realistic way to ask for help, find an attorney or leave. The bill's author, Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, said survivors told lawmakers about "coercion and abuse hidden behind the appearance of consent."

The Governor signed the bill in his office alongside Courtney Stodden, a survivor of child marriage who has become a national voice against child exploitation 📝

Read the Governor's announcement: https://www.gov.ca.gov/2026/09/30/governor-newsom-signs-bill-to-ban-child-marriage/

New Hampshire's Domestic Violence Fatality Review Committee released its first report in October, and its numbers are wo...
10/11/2026

New Hampshire's Domestic Violence Fatality Review Committee released its first report in October, and its numbers are worth sitting with.

From 2022 through 2025, 44 of the state's 68 homicides were related to domestic violence, according to the committee. A fi***rm was used in 30 of them. Twenty of the people responsible were romantic partners and 22 were family members.

The committee was created by state law in 2025 to review specific deaths and learn what the state could do differently. Its first report proposes 11 policy and practice changes. Among them: making subsequent domestic violence convictions felonies, and training 911 dispatchers on the dynamics of domestic violence. Its members include representatives of the state's domestic and s*xual violence coalition, the courts, law enforcement and prosecutors.

Reviews like this only matter if the recommendations are carried out 📋

Read the reporting from the New Hampshire Bulletin: https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2026/10/07/in-wake-of-high-profile-death-new-report-on-domestic-violence-in-nh-proposes-changes/

Governor Newsom signed AB 2534 on September 30, making California the first state with a restraining order designed spec...
10/10/2026

Governor Newsom signed AB 2534 on September 30, making California the first state with a restraining order designed specifically to prevent a forced marriage.

Here is how it works. The bill adds forced marriage to California's Domestic Violence Prevention Act. It defines a forced marriage as one where a person does not or cannot consent and is compelled to enter or stay in it through force, fraud, coercion, duress, abuse of power or coercive control, whether or not the marriage is legally valid.

A person can ask the court for protection before the marriage happens, and everyone involved in arranging, officiating, financing or facilitating it can be named as respondents in one case. The law takes effect January 1, 2027.

The Tahirih Justice Center called it the country's first Forced Marriage Restraining Order.

If someone you know is facing this in Los Angeles County, our 24 hour hotline is 310-547-9343 📞

Read the bill: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB2534

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