By Bob Egelko, Image: Marilyn Nieves/Getty Images, San Francisco Chronicle, August 16, 2023
Judges have long been able to order perpetrators of domestic violence to halt the abuse and stay away from the spouse or partner they were abusing. Now a state appeals court says the same rules can apply to those who inflict economic harm, such as depriving a partner of their credit card, car or job.
California’s domestic-violence law defines “abuse” broadly to include acts that “destroy the mental or emotional calm of the other party,” the Fourth District Court of Appeal in Riverside said in a ruling published Wednesday as a precedent for future cases. Those include not only physical assault but also actions intended to “control, regulate, and monitor a spouse’s finances, economic resources, movements, and access to communications,” the court said.
The justices understood that the law’s definition of domestic abuse “includes physical abuse or injury, as well as acts that destroy the mental or emotional calm of the other party,” said Benjamin Shatz, attorney for the California Women’s Law Center.
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