There's definitely a way to lose a domestic violence case. For example, if you take a case to trial that the prosecutors have the good evidence on, they've got photographs of injuries, bodycam evidence, a 9-1-1 tape.
They also have a cooperative alleged victim giving information against the defendant, the defendant makes a statement that is incriminating, obviously, taking that trial you're going to lose.
So, just because you can't afford to have a domestic violation conviction on your record and all of the consequences that come along with that, doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to take the case to trial because that is not the recipe to win the case.
Strength of Evidence in a Domestic Violence Case
If you want the recipe to lose the case, that is base your decision on what you can't take versus what is the evidence against you? Is the evidence strong enough to prove you guilty?
If it's strong enough to be able to prove you guilty, then taking the case to trial is simply going to result in a loss and it's going to result in you getting worse penalties, punishment and consequences than if you would have just worked out a deal with the prosecutors.
So, your best bet is to sit down with your domestic violence defense attorney, go over all the evidence step-by-step. You want to be honest with that attorney.
I can't tell you how any times I've seen defense attorneys lose cases because their client didn't tell the them the truth about what was going on, so they weren't completely prepared.
Part of good preparation in a domestic violence case or a spousal abuse case — or any type of a battery-related offense — is having good information from your client about what happened. That means the good, the bad and the ugly You don't just say the stuff that might be helpful to you.
Improper Focus on Details of Domestic Violence Case
In fact, I think a lot of times a recipe for not being successful and losing a case, is that all you're doing is focusing on what you can't have on your record and being focused on your spin of what happened, instead of first starting out with asking, what are the prosecutors and police going to do in order to prove the case?
How are they going to put the case together? What exactly are they going to claim that I did in this case? That's where you should start with your defense attorney because your defense attorney is going to want to know how these guys are going to come at us.
Once I see how they're going to come at us, then I can figure out how we can defend the case and I can figure out what the right moves are going forward.
But if I don't even know how they're coming at us and all I have is your version — it's funny, I get people coming in and tell me their version and I look at them and I'm like, why are you here?
I mean if it happened that way, we shouldn't even be talking right now. So, start off by saying, here's what they're going to claim that I did. But here's the problem with what they're claiming that I did.
Ignoring All The Facts Against You
So, I think the key thing is, if you want to lose a case — and of course nobody does — I'm being sarcastic, but if you want to lose a case, only focus in on and only give the information about your side of the story and just ignore the other side of the story completely.
Or, if you want to lose a domestic violence case, focus in on your version of events. Focus in on the bad consequences that can happen to you and let that drive how you deal with the case That is obviously a recipe for losing a domestic violence case.
So, there you go. That's how to lose a domestic violence case — ignore all the facts against you and only zero in on trying to avoid the ramifications that are going to flow from a domestic violence conviction.
Rather, you need to be looking honestly at the case and what happened in the case and then really siting down and deciding what the best moves are, and obviously you're going to do that with your domestic violence defense attorney.
That's how you're going to decide what you're going to do. You have to sit down with them and get your game plan together because we don't want to lose a domestic violence case.
We want to win the case, and the way to win is to put together a powerful defense and to make the right decisions at the right time based on the evidence that the prosecutors are going to present against you.
