Elizabeth Balli Van Sickle: An Advocate for Survivors of Domestic Violence

I still recall the exact moment I decided to go to law school. I was enrolled at Texas A&M University – College Station and had been majoring in accounting for over two and a half years. During my Junior year, I decided to take a political science class as an elective and during one class period the professor showed the class a video about a woman that had murdered her husband.  It was initially shocking until it went over the sequence of events leading up to the murder. Come to find out, she had been horribly abused for many years and she finally broke. It appeared that something switched and she murdered him. She felt helpless, terrified, and in the end just wanted to stop the awful and ongoing abuse.  The woman subject of the video was a Latina and it really touched me. I looked around my college classroom of over 350 students and suddenly realized I was one of only a handful of Latino students in that classroom.  At that moment, I believed it was my duty as a person of color to change my career path, help other women of color in need, and go to law school.

After graduating law school, I clerked for a district court judge in Houston, Texas. I then moved to San Antonio and started representing injured claimant’s in the area of worker’s compensation and social security disability law.  I practiced both social security and disability for over nineteen (19) years, representing individuals who were injured, became ill, and needed assistance with their benefits. Over the years, I have been involved with thousands of hearings trying to help people get back on their feet, get government assistance, and ultimately get the medical care they so badly needed. 

I have since changed the direction of my legal specialty and I am now with Family Violence Prevention Services, which is the legal department of the Battered Women’s Shelter of San Antonio.  I am so happy to be part of this organization and I now feel that I have circled back to the reason I wanted to practice law in the first place.  I have truly found my calling.  Since joining this organization, my knowledge base and understanding of the issues regarding domestic violence have certainly grown substantially.  

The goal of Family Violence Prevention Services is to get victims of domestic violence out of the cycle of violence and out of immediate danger.  The shelter offers a safe space to stay, get away from their abuser, and recover from their injuries.  If an individual is a victim of domestic violence that individual can call our emergency domestic violence hotline at (210) 733-8810 to get help.  This hotline will connect them to counselors who can offer emergency services such as procedures to get away from their abuser, housing, and a connection to legal services.

Once a determination of eligibility is made, an individual and their child(ren) may get accepted into the program which offers wrap around services, such as housing, legal services, and counseling for both adults and children. What we ultimately want to do is empower individuals to get them out of the cycle of domestic violence. We also have a multitude of connections with other organizations within our community that can also assist survivors with basic services, self-empowerment and education. I love seeing our residents begin and/or continue to pursue their journey of education and obtain a GED, high school diploma, and a degree in higher education as well.  It is crucial to get survivors of domestic violence into the cycle of success which is vital to a prosperous future. 

As an attorney, my job is to fight for the rights of victims in order to get their life back on track, keep them safe, and to preserve their legal rights.  I do a lot of protective orders which assists survivors of domestic abuse, sexual assault, dating violence, stalking and human trafficking.  A protective order will have a judge order an abuser to stay away from a survivor which may also include preventing abusers from going near a victim’s home or place of employment, their family, and possibly their children.  It is also important to note that a judge will also order an abuser not to carry a gun, even if the abuser already has a license to carry.  During the course of my work, I also do divorces, custody cases, modifications, and termination cases for survivors of domestic violence.  

Oftentimes, the legal process can be difficult, stressful, and time consuming but one of the most rewarding aspects of my work is to see a person transition from a VICTIM to a SURVIVOR.  Empowering survivors can be one of the biggest things you can do for them and you’d be surprised how quickly that can happen. When survivors are away from the abuse and are out of survival mode, they can start to concentrate on other aspects of their life such as their education, work, and controlling their own finances. Usually, the first time I meet a survivor they are terrified and scared or they have bruises/very specific injuries that they are still healing from. Six months later, you see them come in, and they seem taller, stronger, empowered, and healthier. It is an amazing thing to watch and knowing that I had something to do with that transition is beyond rewarding.

There are several misconceptions regarding domestic violence, the first being that that only women go through it. You’d be surprised how many men are abused in our area on a daily basis. I’ve represented quite a few men who have gone through years of psychological, physical and emotional abuse and they also need our assistance.  Another misconception is that domestic violence only affects the poor.  I can tell you through my years of practice that it is wrong.  Women of all socio-economic strata are affected and it is more pervasive than one might think.  The awful disease of domestic violence affects everyone and does not discriminate based on gender, color, wealth or level of education.  The biggest misconception is that survivors immediately leave their abusers at the first sign of abuse. One of the most surprising things that I’ve learned is that on average, it takes SEVEN instances of violence before an individual seeks finally breaks the cycle.   

In addition to my role as an attorney, I am also the co-founder of Latina Power Network (LPN), a non-profit organization.  I founded this organization to both empower Latina women and to raise money to provide scholarships for women.  LPN actually started as a class project for a leadership program I was involved with through the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.  The name of this program is the Latina Leadership Institute, which is a program designed to teach Latina women how to run for political office, to work on campaigns and campaign financing, join boards and commission and the local, state, and national level, and to learn more about their local government. 

I am proud to mention that I have been selected as a co-chair of the Latina Leadership Institute for the 2023 class year.  I look forward to teaching women how to empower themselves through knowledge and to also serve their community at the same time.