The Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence dispersed wildly false information in their take action notice regarding both the current statute and the bills to their 70 member orgs, creating mass opposition to our House ESHB 1620 in the Senate, which is what caused the Senate Committee to flip the bill back to its original version.

Lie: Point 1: "Eliminate protections against abusive use of conflict…” and Point 4: that our House Striker will “Give abusive individuals more power to harass survivors through the courts.”

Truth: Abusive Litigation is still intact in the 26.51 chapter, it is not weakened at all. An amendment could have referenced it again in the 191 chapter.

Lie: Point 2: that it will “Create confusion in the courts by inconsistently defining key terms,”

Truth: Is a false and weak argument as the term “domestic abuse” is a nationally recognized term, it is defined, and even if it weren’t an amendment could have fixed that. 

Lie: Point 3: that the House Striker will “Force survivors into court to resolve every dispute with someone causing them harm,”

Truth: our striker keeps the statute’s language, but further protects survivors by stating that decision making goes to the abuse survivor and not the abuser which their bill was silent on. 

Finally Lie: Point 5: the House Striker does not “Block courts from considering key evidence of abuse,”

The House Striker did the opposite, in addition to keeping to keeping the current definition of domestic violence, it guided the judge on what other elements to consider and removes factors that are used to downplay abuse.