Utah’s Legal Changes: Coercion
Utah is Adding More Protections for Victims
Across the US and internationally, there has been an increased push in legislation to protect victims and children in family court situations. In May of this year, Utah moved in this same direction, making some adjustments to HB 303 to reflect more nuance in abuse situations. This could potentially help individuals and their attorneys to more effectively argue for protections in situations with coercive control, reduce conflict, and streamline protocols.
A Major Win
The intent of family court involvement with custody and parent-time should be focused on the best interests of the children. Courts define this in a variety of ways, but they have been either fairly ambiguous (evidence of psychological maltreatment, parent’s ability to meet the needs of the child, capacity to function as a parent, etc.) or focused primarily on physical or sexual violence. The adjustments to the law now more explicitly capture some elements of psychological and emotional abuse by defining coercive control.
If someone’s behavior unreasonably interferes with another individual's ability to make or act on independent decisions, that is coercive control.
The court’s definition explicitly states that coercive control does not have to be “intentional.” This is a major win for victims, who often hear: “How can you know he actually meant to?” “Everyone gets stressed sometimes.” “No one is perfect.” “They have trauma in their past!” The law is clear: regardless of motive or whether or not it was premeditated, the effect of that behavior is equally important.
Examples of Coercive Control
Here are the examples listed in the law:
isolating another individual from friends, relatives, or sources of support;
depriving another individual of basic necessities;
controlling, regulating, or excessively monitoring another individual's movements, communications, daily behavior, or access to services;
controlling, regulating, excessively monitoring, depriving, or limiting another individual's finances, access to finances, or economic resources;
threatening to harm or kill another individual, a relative of the individual, or a household animal that is owned or kept by the individual;
threatening self-harm if another individual does not comply with the individual's demands;
threatening to publish information with the intent to harass or intimidate another individual;
damaging property or household goods;
compelling another individual by force, threat of force, or intimidation to engage in conduct from which the other individual has a right to abstain; or to abstain from conduct in which the other individual has a right to engage.
If you’ve experienced other types of abuse not listed here, that doesn’t automatically mean they aren’t coercive control - but this is a great start. For years, victims have had to try to explain long-term patterns of psychological and emotional abuse that weren’t explicitly validated by the court. Given that many abusers also can perform the “right” behaviors once someone is watching, the law is also protective in defining this as a pattern of behavior. This can include the behaviors over the lifetime of the relationship - not just the behavior occurring after legal proceedings have begun.
Having these behaviors explicitly described gives victims and their legal representation an opportunity to push back. It will likely take years for judges and commissioners to become familiar with these concepts and integrate them in their rulings, depending on their investment and whether they are held accountable to these changes. Other changes required to be immediately implemented have still not been set up, so it is still going to take determination and consistency for these protections to work.
Remember, these changes were made as it applies to courts making decisions on custody and parent-time.
Recommendations
If you read through the examples of coercive control and recognized a lot of them in your life, it may be useful to consider these ideas. This is not legal advice - please consult with an attorney who has experience working with abuse dynamics and is familiar with the new coercive control definitions. Post-separation abuse is real, and leaving a relationship is one of the most dangerous times. Please take precautions when considering these options.
Using the examples of coercive control listed above, think through your relationship and write down memories that could fit. If you’re having difficulty remembering, try looking through pictures, past journals, social media posts, etc. Sometimes they bring memories back more clearly. Take breaks and be kind to yourself while doing so. There may also be memories that fit broader abuse or domestic violence definitions, and these would be useful to note as well.
For each example, consider the law’s requirement that the behavior “unreasonably interferes with another individual's ability to make or act on independent decisions.” How did that behavior impact what decisions you felt were available to you? How did that impact the choices you made? If there was no interference, what choice do you think you would’ve liked to make?
Was anyone else aware that this was happening? Did anyone witness these events or the impact on you? List them, if there were. Ask trusted family or friends if they have ever had concerns about your relationship with your partner, and why. They may have additional examples, or some you may have forgotten. Be extremely careful here. If they have a close relationship with this person, have ever defended them, or tell you they “don’t want to take sides,” etc. this is likely not someone you should be involving.
Create an ongoing written record. This could be communicating primarily through text, recording phone calls or in-person conversations, saving screenshots (sending these in email to a friend or secondary email can be helpful), keeping a journal (online with a password/lock separate from your Cloud), using court-ordered apps where texts can’t be deleted, etc. It can often be helpful to set up an automation on your phone to log relevant information after exchanges, court, etc. so you don’t have to remember to do it yourself every time.
Reach out to your local domestic violence shelter and share some of your experience. In Utah, you can call or text 1-800-897-LINK (5465) 24/7 to access supports. They will keep information confidential. Validation and guidance from a trained professional can often ground you, especially if you have limited supports. Ask them what resources they think could benefit you. Remember, they are also mandatory reporters, so if you shared current child and/or elder abuse or immediate threats of harm, they would need to report this.
To read about other changes in HB 303, look for my next blog post coming up on changes to Custody Evaluators and other protocols in court. Look here if you’re interested in joining my group on recovering from narcissistic abuse or here if you need some one-on-one support.
If you’d like to be notified when I write new articles, provide freebies or open my next group or course, sign up below.
