We have received a favorable opinion from the First District Court of Appeal in California in an appeal our office filed in connection with a court's denial of a domestic violence restraining order. Bay Area Legal Aid represented the appellant, and Nancy Lemon and one of her law students, Kelly Burke, wrote an amicus brief on behalf of the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence. In this case, the court refused to grant our client a temporary restraining order and refused to set the case for hearing. The appellate court reversed both of these decisions.

I am attaching a copy of the decision, in case it is helpful in some of your work.

The decision was issued as an unpublished decision, which means it cannot be cited as legal precedent. We will be submitting a Request for Publication, and would love for other domestic violence organizations to submit requests for publication as well. Any person can request publication of an opinion - they must simply state their interest in the opinion and why it merits publication. I have attached our draft Request for Publication you can use for a sample. THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING THIS REQUEST IS JULY 18, 2007. The court must receive the request by then. The address for the court is:

Court Clerk
Division One
First Appellate District
State of California Court of Appeal
350 McAllister Street
San Francisco, CA 94102-4712

Please contact me if you have any questions.

Minouche Kandel
Staff Attorney
Bay Area Legal Aid
50 Fell Street, 1st Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 982-1300 x. 6356
fax: (415) 982-4243
mkandel@baylegal.org