Lawmakers, cops, courts, and family violence: some progress.

Public awareness of the toll taken by domestic violence in this country has grown rapidly in recent years, pumped up by events like Nicole Brown Simpson's murder. Legal cases involving battered women often raise tangled issues of marital law, criminal law, and tort law. According to Fredrica Lehrman, head of ATLA's Domestic Violence Litigation Group, this overlap remains confusing, but progress is noticeable.

Recent changes include the following:

* Most provisions of the federal Violence Against Women Act were included in the 1994 federal crime bill, passed and signed into law in August. Among other things, the act will encourage states to mandate arrests in battering incidents, make protective orders from one state valid in all, and make it a federal crime to cross state fines to injure a spouse. (See Joseph Biden, Domestic Violence: a Crime, Not a Quarrel, TRIAL, June 1993, at 56.

* Some states, including New York and Connecticut, now require police to arrest suspected batterers and take them away immediately. (Rorie Sherman, Domestic Abuse Bills Gain Momentum in Legislatures, Nat'l L. J., July 4, 1994, at A9.

* All states and the District of Columbia now permit people injured by a spouse or lover. to get protective civil court injunctions. Lehrman said the courts have wide leeway and may, for example, other the abuser to stop attacking the victim; stay away; move out of the house; attend domestic violence counseling; give up custody of the children; or pay for property damage, court costs, and attorney fees.

* In all but two states, Delaware and Hawaii, spousal immunity has been partly abolished. Victims may now sue abusive spouses for such torts as assault, battery (including marital rape), defamation, false imprisonment, infliction of emotional distress, and interference with child custody. The family of a victim who is killed may sue for wrongful death.

* Spouses who attack despite protective orders now may face simultaneous civil suit by the victim and criminal prosecution by the state. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that this does not violate the Double Jeopardy Clause so long as the offenses named contain distinct elements. (United States v. Dixon, 113 S. Ct. 2849 (1993).

* In some jurisdictions, police are taking family violence incidents more seriously. Some have set up special squads trained in intervention. They may tape victim and witness statements at the scene and photograph the bruises, smashed furniture, and torn clothing to document the assault. These tactical changes mean that prosecution can proceed even if the victim later decides she wants to drop the charges--not uncommon in these cases.

* More district attorneys are actively prosecuting domestic aggressors for assault and battery, according to Lehrman. They use recordings of 911 calls, police observation of injuries, and defendants' admissions to police (comments like "What do you mean, I can't beat my wife?") as evidence.

* Courts are experimenting with better ways to handle cases of battering. For example, in Dade County, Florida, a unified domestic violence court often requires special intensive counseling to teach offenders how to communicate nonviolently.

* Some women have used the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to force police to take domestic violence incidents more seriously. These cases stem from Thurman v. City of Torrington, where a woman crippled by her husband's violence charged that police had failed to give her the same protection as the victims of other types of assault. (595 F. Supp. 1521 (D. Conn. 1984).) She won substantial damages.

* More courts are allowing expert psychological testimony on Battered Woman's Syndrome, which is a form of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to Michael Dowd of Pace University Law School. Where admissible, this testimony can be used to help the jury understand why women with a history of being battered without retaliating have suddenly killed their abusers. Some states have allowed this testimony to establish damages in civil actions or back up a request for substantial alimony to help pay for psychotherapy. (See Battered Women and the Law: 'We Are All Responsible,' TRIAL, July 1994, at 62.

* The courts are divided on whether to permit tort suits for domestic violence as part of divorce actions, Lehrman said. In Alabama, Arkansas, and Tennessee, post-dissolution tort suits are barred; in other states they are permitted or the issue has not been litigated in appellate court.