When Mira decided to seek a protective order against her husband, she didn’t have anyone to turn to. After he had harmed her on more than one occasion, she went to court and requested protection for herself and her young child, and the court granted the order.
Mira went into her hearing without an attorney, and she was unsure what relief she was entitled to request. She felt pressured to agree to terms proposed in the courtroom, and in the months that followed, those terms proved difficult and at times unsafe to follow.
She and her husband lived several hours apart. Under the order, they were required to exchange their child for visitation twice a month in a distant town roughly halfway between their homes. Mira was unable to drive for several more months, and the transportation she had arranged through a family member fell through. The order also set the exchanges in a public parking lot, which Mira did not believe was a safe location. She had not known at her hearing that she could ask for the exchanges to take place at a law enforcement agency or another secure location. And although she was supporting her child entirely on her own, the order didn’t include any child support, because she had not known she could request it.
Rather than stop following the order, Mira reached out to Lone Star Legal Aid. Attorney Cheranda Robertson agreed to represent her and filed a motion to modify the protective order, asking the court to make the visitation exchanges workable and safe and to order the child’s father to pay child support.
At the hearing, Robertson argued that the existing terms were unworkable and that Mira was seeking a formal modification rather than violating the order on her own. Robertson explained that the requested changes would not burden either party and would in fact benefit both parents, since each would travel once a month instead of twice. Robertson also emphasized that Mira had continued to cooperate and to support a safe relationship between the child and his father, despite the family violence she had experienced. Because the father testified that he was not employed, Attorney A asked the court to set child support based on minimum wage. The court granted all of the requested relief.
The modifications made an immediate difference for Mira. The visitation exchanges are now safer and require significantly less travel, and she is receiving child support to help provide for her child. The changes also give her stability while she works toward a more comprehensive custody and support order.
Mira’s experience reflects a common difficulty for survivors who navigate the legal system without representation. Feeling anxious to get reach a conclusion in court, many agree to terms they do not fully understand, only to find later that those terms are hard or unsafe to live with. Through legal representation, Lone Star Legal Aid helps survivors secure protective orders that offer protection for themselves and their children.
Lone Star Legal Aid (LSLA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit law firm focused on advocacy for low-income populations by providing free legal education, advice, and representation. LSLA serves millions of people at 125% of federal poverty guidelines, who live in 72 counties in the eastern and Gulf Coast regions of Texas, and 4 counties in Southwest Arkansas. To learn more about Lone Star Legal Aid, visit our website at www.LoneStarLegal.org.
Media contact: media@lonestarlegal.org