O’Melveny Supports Domestic Abuse Survivors with Amicus Brief in US Supreme Court Win

An O’Melveny team served as counsel for a group of domestic abuse survivors in an amicus brief filed in the US Supreme Court case of Golan v. Saada. O’Melveny’s clients were on the winning side of the justices’ June 15, 2022 holding that federal district courts are not obligated to explore home-country ameliorative measures in deciding repatriation claims for endangered minors removed from their home country.

The case involved a US citizen who married an Italian citizen and had a son. The mother traveled with her son to the US, and they moved into a domestic violence shelter. The husband, who had been physically and emotionally abusive, filed a petition in a New York federal court to have his son repatriated to Italy under the Hague Convention, an international agreement that prevents a parent from gaining an advantage in a custody dispute by taking the child to a different country. But the mandate contains an exception where there is a “grave risk” that returning the child would expose him/her to harm.

After the lower court ordered that the child be repatriated to Italy, the Supreme Court granted cert. O’Melveny’s amicus brief focused on why home-country ameliorative measures often prove ineffective mitigating risks to children of an abusive parent and jeopardize the wellbeing of the survivor. In its ruling on the merits, the high court agreed, remanding the case to the judge to decide afresh on repatriation without obligation to consider such ameliorative measures.