Will the Court Order Me to Stay Away From My Significant Other in a Domestic Violence Case?

It's unbelievable.  I'm seeing more and more that courts and prosecutors are blocking the defendant in domestic violence cases from being able to come within one hundred yards of their significant other.

Full Stay-Away Protective Order

Even if the people live together and the defendant has nowhere else to go, at the first court appearance the prosecutors are arguing for a protective order with a full stay-away, and that means during the pendency of the case, the defendant has to stay away from the alleged victim in the case.

I've tried to get these, once they've been put on, removed while the case is going on and a lot of the judges are saying no, we will not take it off until the case is over, and maybe even after the case is over we will leave it on there for a period of time while the person is on probation to make sure they're doing their domestic violence classes and they're not going to have any more issues with that particular defendant.

This is a very difficult situation because really what the courts are trying to do is protect the alleged victim from the perpetrator.  They believe a lot of times alleged victims are minimizing what the perpetrator did because maybe they financially support them, maybe they're in love with them.

Whatever the case may be.  They are unable to protect themselves, so the courts are taking it upon themselves to protect the alleged victim in a domestic violence case.

This is a recent shift where they're doing a complete stay-away on a lot of these domestic violence cases.  Before you could get what's called a level one restraining order where they would order the defendant not to annoy, molest, harass, stalk, strike the alleged victim.  Now, they're just saying, you just have to stay completely away from them.

Domestic Violence Classes

I have been able to get around this in some cases  When I see this coming, a lot of times I will have my client start to do domestic violence classes right away because there's usually a thirty to forty-five day period before they end up at their arraignment if they've bailed out, so that gives them a chance to show that they're serious about not having any further issues, so they'll start doing domestic violence classes.

This is a bit of a catch-22 because if they don't' do the classes then more than likely, there's going to be a full stay-away order.  If they do the classes then that could possibly be used against them in a later prosecution.  Why are you doing classes if you didn't hit the person.  So, it's a difficult/dicey situation.

That's why it's crucial that you get to a criminal defense attorney who does a lot of spousal abuse and domestic violence cases so they can properly advise you.  It's not just the same thing in every single case.  Cases are different.  Circumstances are different.  People have different prior criminal records.  The level of violence is different in every single case.

Los Angeles Domestic Violence Lawyer

So, you really have to get in front of an attorney and let that attorney help guide you.  Obviously, you need to be honest with that attorney.  I have people come into my office in domestic violence cases and say, do you want me to tell you everything or do you just want the nut-shell version of what happened.

What I say is, do me a favor, give me the punchline.  Just tell me what they're claiming that you did and then we can start to get into the details of it.  In other words, they're claiming that I punched my wife in the face and they've got pictures of her with a black eye.

Alright, now I know at least what the allegations are.  Now we can get into, did you do that?  If you didn't do that, how did she get the black eye.  Give me the details of what happened leading up to the issue.  Who called 9-1-1?  Were there any witnesses?

It's important that you're honest with your attorney if you want the best chance of not getting one of these protective orders where you cannot see your significant other and possibly have to move out of your house.  This is especially difficult if you have children with the other person. So, pick up the phone.  Make the call and we will get this case moving in the right direction.

Hedding Law Firm
16000 Ventura Blvd #1208
Encino, CA 91436
(213) 542-0979