On March 11, the North Carolina Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that allows same-sex couples to receive domestic violence protective orders (DVPO) in cases where the couple is unmarried and does not live together.
In 2019, Brooks Pierce attorneys Eric David and Collins Saint filed an amicus curiae brief with the North Carolina Court of Appeals on behalf of several nonprofit organizations that advocate for the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals outlining how domestic violence impacts the LGBTQ+ community and arguing that they should have equal protection under the law. In 2020, the Court of Appeals issued a landmark ruling finding the statute unconstitutional as applied to same-sex dating couples on equal protection grounds.
In 2021, while the case was pending in the North Carolina Supreme Court, David and Saint filed a new amicus curiae brief on behalf of the North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence urging the Court to take into account the emotional trauma that survivors of domestic violence often experience when they navigate the court system to seek a domestic violence protective order.
To access the N.C. Supreme Court’s Opinion, click here.
