Domestic Violence
Domestic violence is considered very seriously in our family law cases. Both men and women can experience some form of domestic violence at the hands of a spouse or a partner. Such acts of violence often go unreported. Herein we present merely an overview of domestic abuse, as well as some suggested legal means to protect victims from its continued occurrence. Domestic violence refers to abusive behavior that may occur either on one occasion or as part of a repeated pattern, commonly due to anger-related issues or as a means of controlling an intimate partner. Whenever physical, psychological, or emotional abuse occurs, it can display itself in many forms. For example, it may involve what most people immediately think of, such as a perpetrator physically hurting a victim by hitting, slapping, punching, and even using a weapon against them. Domestic abuse, however, often takes on or includes such insidious forms of control as restraining a victim against his or her will; withholding or manipulating food, money, medication, and transportation; isolating a victim from having friends or family members in their life; intimidating, insulting, criticizing or degrading them, thus lowering their self-esteem; as well as shouting or cursing loudly while hitting walls, kicking doors, or throwing things during arguments. It can also extend to threatening a victim’s children or pets. In many of our cases, we discover that an opposing party has monitored our client’s movements or communications, whether through their computer or phone. If you or a friend or loved one has experienced these types of behavior, they do represent forms of domestic violence.