The stakes in domestic abuse cases are dire and often dangerous

Civil protection orders are not foolproof, but they are often effective. A 2011 study of more than 200 women who were granted restraining orders in Kentucky found that for half of them, the violence stopped after they secured the order; the other half reported that the abuse had fallen off significantly. At a rough estimate — no reliable national data are compiled — well over 1 million Americans, mostly women, seek restraining orders annually. In most cases, those victims cannot afford to hire a lawyer. That produces severely skewed outcomes. In a survey from 1999 to 2000, just 36 of 205 women sampled in Baltimore had a lawyer when they sought a civil protection order. Of those 36 women, 30 got the protection they sought, while just a third of the other 169 women, unrepresented by counsel, were successful.