Family law practice changed profoundly as a result of the pandemic. Incidents of domestic violence skyrocketed beginning in March 2020, with record numbers of calls, chats and texts made to the National Domestic Violence Hotline. Violence against women increased to unprecedented levels over the past three years, especially during lockdowns, where women were isolated from their support systems and often denied access to shelters. According to Pennsylvania’s Annual Caseload Statistics, there was a significant reduction of new cases filed under the Protection from Abuse Act in 2020, likely due to court closures. But those numbers quickly rose in 2021, with an annual increase of more than 2,700 new filings. And the numbers climbed even higher in 2022, with over 40,000 new PFA filings. Compared to the pre-pandemic years of 2017-2019, PFA filings are up through June of this year by over 9%. This trend is consistent with a report released by the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice showing that domestic violence increased by more than 8% following the imposition of lockdown orders in 2020.

Family lawyers are still adjusting to the rising incidents of domestic violence over the past three years. Whether this is a result of COVID isolation, the economic downturn, or other factors, family lawyers today are frequently faced with clients who are in fear for their lives. High-conflict cases abound in the years of the pandemic and post-pandemic, and many victims of domestic violence are seeing a rise in cyberstalking and other misuses of smart technology. Almost every appellate decision of the Pennsylvania Superior Court in the last two years in which a defendant appealed a PFA finding involves the abuse of technology to harass or intimidate a victim, including cases in which social media is the conduit. What is most alarming to family lawyers? How will artificial intelligence be used to threaten the safety of former intimate partners? Bots are already being used to create AI partners who act abusively toward women.

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