K.L. v. R.H.

Filed 9/30/21; Certified for publication 10/26/21 (order attached)

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION THREE

K.L.,

Plaintiff and Respondent, G059109

v. (Super. Ct. No. 18P001978)

R.H., OPINION

Defendant and Appellant.

Appeal from orders of the Superior Court of Orange County, Andre De La Cruz, Judge. Affirmed in part and reversed in part. Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton, Anna S. McLean, Kathryn Kafka, Michael Lundholm; UCI School of Law Domestic Violence Clinic, Jane K. Stoever; Family Violence Appellate Project, Arati Vasan, Jennafer Dorfman Wagner, Erin Smith; Community Legal Aid SoCal, Sarah Reisman, Erica Embree, Janista Lee, Valerie Vasquez and Michelle Kotval for Appellant.

California Women’s Law Center, Amy C. Poyer; Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders, Pamela S. Palmer, Cindy J. Lee, Elizabeth Holt Andrews and Lauren E. Grochow for California Women’s Law Center as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Appellant. Thuerwachter Law Group and James Thuerwachter for LLS Anti-Racism Center, Aoki Center for Critical Race and Nation Studies, Center on Race, Inequality and the Law, Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, Fordham Law School’s Center on Race, Law, and Justice, Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality, and Nathaniel R. Jones Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice as Amici Curiae on behalf of Appellant. K. L., in pro. per., for Respondent. * * *

INTRODUCTION The purpose of the Domestic Violence Prevention Act (DVPA) (Fam. Code, § 6300 et seq.) “is to prevent acts of domestic violence, abuse, and sexual abuse and to provide for a separation of the persons involved in the domestic violence for a period sufficient to enable these persons to seek a resolution of the causes of the violence.” (Id., § 6220.) To achieve this purpose, the DVPA authorizes the court to issue orders enjoining a party from, among other things, “molesting, attacking, striking, stalking, threatening, sexually assaulting, battering, . . . harassing, . . . destroying personal property, . . . coming within a specified distance of, or disturbing the peace of the other party, and, in the discretion of the court, on a showing of good cause, of other named family or household members.” (Id., § 6320, subd. (a).) The DVPA prohibits mutual orders enjoining both parties from the foregoing behavior unless “[t]he court makes detailed findings of fact indicating that both parties acted as a primary aggressor and that neither party acted primarily in