Screenshot of Banking Committee Chair Patricia Billie Miller presiding over a meeting.
Sen. Patricia Billie Miller, D-Stamford, heard testimony from Karen Robbins, who said she was a victim of coerced debt and domestic abuse. CT-N

The Banking Committee passed legislation that would give recourse to survivors of domestic abuse whose partners incurred debt in their names, known as coerced debt.

The experience is common to nearly all victims of domestic violence, according to advocacy groups.

The bill lays out documentation survivors would need to provide in order to prove debt was coerced. If passed, the law would orders creditors to cease collections from victims of coerced debt and call on credit rating agencies to remove it from the victim’s credit report.

Rep. Joe Hoxha, R-Bristol, cast the committee’s lone vote against the bill, calling for more clarity on how the bill defines coercion.

Sen. Christine Cohen, D-Branford, responded by noting that Connecticut has a definition of “coercive control” that passed in 2021, known as “Jennifer’s Law.”

Read more: CT bill proposes relief from ‘coerced debt’ for domestic violence victims

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Erica covers economic development for CT Mirror. Before moving to Connecticut to join the staff she worked in Los Angeles for public radio’s Marketplace and, before that, for the Wall Street Journal's L.A. bureau. She grew up in Minneapolis, MN, graduated from Haverford College and earned a master’s in journalism from the University of Southern California.