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This article examines how lawyers make sense of domestic violence and the legal response to such violence. Interviews with 18 lawyers working in the domestic violence area were analysed using a feminist poststructuralist framework. The authors identify several discourses used by the lawyers, and argue that some discourses help victims by focussing on their needs, while others hinder victims because they shift the responsibility for violence away from the perpetrator. The authors also identify the use of discourses that have mixed implications for the victim, such as the view that protection orders can worsen the situation by angering the abuser.