October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.  Brookfield state Representative Steve Harding is highlighting a bill passed during the last legislative session which enhances protections for victims by expanding the definition of domestic violence to include coercive control.  He says this new law also provides victims with easier access to assistance programs, expands the “best interest of the child” factors in family relations matters to include the child’s physical and emotional health, and creates a grant program to provide free legal assistance to indigent restraining order applicants among others.