Domestic violence: Reclaim Act

It creates a statewide process to curb litigation used to harass, control, delay, or financially burden domestic-violence survivors. It also makes the process free and more accessible through electronic filing and remote hearings.

What the law does ​

• Lets a domestic-violence victim in a pending California case seek a prefiling order against another party before final judgment.
• Stays the case and pending discovery while the court decides the request.
• Requires the court to issue an order after notice and hearing when the victim proves the other party committed domestic violence and used frivolous or abusive litigation or discovery.
• Requires an enjoined party to obtain court permission before filing a civil, family, or small-claims case against the victim, adding a claim, or conducting discovery.
• Requires courts to dismiss pending abusive or frivolous litigation and order withdrawal of pending abusive or frivolous discovery requests.
• Automatically stays unauthorized filings or discovery and requires sanctions, attorney’s fees, and costs if the enjoined party had, or is reasonably likely to have, the ability to pay.
• Allows an enjoined party to seek to vacate an order based on a material change in facts; after a denial, another request generally must wait 18 months.
• Requires the Judicial Council to maintain and distribute records of prefiling orders and to create or update implementing forms and court rules by January 1, 2028.

Who it affects ​

• Domestic-violence victims who are parties in California civil, family, or small-claims cases.
• Parties found to have committed domestic violence and to have used frivolous or abusive litigation or discovery.
• Courts, court clerks, attorneys, support persons, and witnesses participating in these proceedings.

Context ​

Domestic-violence restraining-order discovery remains available only with court approval for good cause and must be limited to the least intrusive, minimally necessary methods.