Clorox Equal Justice Works Fellow Spotlight: Elissa Gray & the Family Violence Appellate Project

More than four years ago we made a commitment — through The Clorox Company Foundation — to help fight racism and inequality. Some of our financial commitment goes toward supporting Equal Justice Works fellows like Elissa Gray. Elissa is working with the Family Violence Appellate Project to protect the legal rights of low-income domestic violence survivors in California who are facing harmful family court orders but lack adequate remedies to challenge them.

Who is your host organization and what kind of work do they do?

My host organization is Family Violence Appellate Project, a California and Washington state nonprofit legal organization providing appellate-level legal assistance to survivors of domestic abuse and other forms of gender-based violence. FVAP’s legal assistance includes direct representation of survivors in appellate cases, collaboration with pro bono attorneys, policy advocacy, and training and legal support for shelters, domestic violence advocates, and attorneys representing survivors.

What’s the focus of your fellowship?

The goal of my fellowship is to increase access to appellate-level writ review for low-income domestic violence survivors in California. A writ is an order from a higher court commanding a lower court to either do something or stop doing something. My project centers on writ petitions requesting the California Courts of Appeal to intervene when a trial court makes problematic orders for a survivor in their family law case.

Access to writ review is important for survivors because writs are designed for limited “emergency circumstances” where a survivor has no other way to challenge a harmful trial court order, something that happens frequently and can put the survivor in danger.

However, because writs are an emergency remedy, the standard for a successful writ is discretionary, and the appellate court can deny relief without any explanation. Writs also operate on an expedited timeline and are often inaccessible. A writ petition, which lays out the case record and legal arguments for the trial court’s harmful error, should often be filed within 60 days or less from the date of the trial’s court order.

Through direct representation of survivors, community partnerships, and the development of free writ resources for advocates and survivors across California, my goal is to make filing a writ petition a realistic option survivors can not only access but feel empowered to pursue.

What is an example of a case you’ve worked on that illustrates some of the challenges your clients have faced and how your project addresses those challenges?

Recently, I worked on a writ petition in conjunction with another nonprofit legal organization, Bay Area Legal Aid, on behalf of one of their youth clients. It challenged the trial court’s denial of a temporary move-out order as part of the client’s request for a domestic violence restraining order to protect herself and her siblings from the abuse of her mother’s boyfriend. A move-out order would prohibit him from living in the family home rented under a subsidized housing program, but it was repeatedly denied by the trial court, concluding the client did not have the right to seek the order despite living in the home and being named on both the rental agreement and subsidy paperwork. This left the client and her siblings with the choice between housing instability or staying in a home with their abuser.

In response to the filing of our writ petition, the Court of Appeal issued a decision confirming the trial court’s denial of the temporary move-out order was an error and providing guidance on the standard for move-out orders.

This case highlights the urgent need for the accessibility of writ review for survivors of domestic violence, who should have the choice — like this client did — to challenge problematic and harmful decisions with as few barriers as possible.