Prosecutors Filing Domestic Violence Case vs Los Angeles City Attorney Hearing
When it comes to these domestic violence cases in Los Angeles, a lot of the cases fall by the way of a City Attorney hearing. The prosecutors will send it to their city attorney's office.
There are usually hearing officers there. They're generally not lawyers, but they work for the City Attorney's office, and basically, what they're doing is they're going to conduct a hearing.
They're going to listen to what each side has to say, and each side, of course, is entitled to have an attorney present. Then, they're going to pass the information on to the real City Attorneys, who are lawyers, and they're going to make a decision on whether or not a case should be filed against one or both parties, sometimes, depending on the circumstances.
Often, when the City Attorney hearing occurs, they're angled towards and have an eye towards not filing a case. In other words, they want people to avoid being prosecuted when they do a City Attorney hearing, and the reason why is because they see something wrong with the case.
In other words, maybe there's no injury. Perhaps both parties were dangerous and reckless. Possibly, it doesn't rise to the level of domestic violence-type behavior, which is very interesting because I've got some cases that were filed. I don't think they rise to the level of domestic violence, and I'm shocked that they filed it.
I'm shocked they didn't do a City Attorney hearing, and I'm telling the prosecutor about it. You should send this back to the City Attorney hearing. I wonder why you guys filed this case. I've had other instances in which we did a City Attorney hearing that was much worse.
That's another interesting thing. You'll see cases where they do file the case. They don't do a City Attorney hearing, and you're sitting there scratching your head about why they've done it this way.
Los Angeles Domestic Violence Attorney
So, this is where you've got to have a great domestic violence attorney because if they file a case against your criminal defense attorney, you can convince them to send it to a City Attorney hearing — bam — you're in business.
If, on the other hand, your criminal defense attorney can get to them before they make the filing decision, and you get that City Attorney hearing, again, you're in a much stronger position to be able to be successful, not get a criminal conviction for domestic violence on your record.
This way, you can move on with your life and not have the stigma of that conviction. Also, not having to do the 52-week domestic violence course comes with a domestic violence charge and also not losing your gun rights for ten years, and all the other different things that come along with that conviction for domestic violence.
