Increasing Safety for Battered Women and Their Children: Creating a Privilege for Supervised Visitation Intake Records

Abstract

Orders issued in domestic violence cases frequently limit a batterer's contact with his children to supervised visitation. Staff at supervised visitation centers use intake to question a victim about the risks that exist for her and her children so that a safe visit between the batterer parent and the children can be provided. Despite the danger inherent in the accessibility of intake records, these documents currently receive scant formal protection from efforts of estranged partners to obtain them. This article proposes that state legislatures enact a statutory privilege for intake records at supervised visitation programs in domestic violence cases where a court has entered a civil order for protection. The article places the scope and rationale for the privilege within the context of existing privileges barring disclosure of sensitive information.