P.A.S.S.
Professionals Assisting & Supporting Survivors
Are you a professional who is willing to provide a pro-bono or reduced fee service to a victim of domestic abuse? If so we want to hear from you! Please fill out the form below and someone will contact you within 24 hours.
Thank you for your support!
Are you and Attorney and want to help?
We believe that all victims of domestic violence should have access to the legal justice system. The mission of the Beginning Over Foundation’s P.A.S.S. Initiative is to provide free or reduced fee legal representation to victims of domestic violence who have limited funds available to them.
It is our hope to encourage you to join our efforts. If you are an attorney and would like to volunteer your time to help us support a victim of domestic violence please provide your information on the form below.
It is our vision to recruit twenty attorneys that will each provide pro-bono services to two victims each per year.
Why this is important to us?
FACTS
According to a recent report published by the American Judges Foundation, studies show that in approximately 70 percent of challenged cases, battering parents have been able to convince authorities during custody battles that their victim is unfit or undeserving of sole custody.
Behind closed doors of the family court system each year, thousands of women each year lose child custody to violent men who beat and abuse mothers and children.
A 1990s study found that custody evaluators did not consider domestic violence to be a major factor in their recommendations, yet they often considered parental alienation to be crucial.
By focusing on parental rights rather than on the best interests of the child, courts frequently fail to limit child visitation by a parent who has abused the other parent. The substantial body of research showing the impact of domestic violence on children suggests that judges should take spousal abuse into account when making custody and visitation decisions. Children suffer emotional and psychological harm not only when they are victims of abuse, but also when they witness the abuse of one parent by another even and when they live in a violent home without witnessing abuse.
