Domestic Violence and the Law – how to get help and protection

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When you’re a victim of domestic violence, there are many ways to get help. Unfortunately most people don’t seek help until it’s already too late. Knowing your options is important. You should never feel that you are powerless, even though somebody may have worked very hard to instill that mindset in you.

What actions you take will depend on the exact circumstances. If you’re at immediate risk to life and limb, the best thing you can do is get away from your attacker in any way that you can, as long as there is a clear line of escape. If you can get out from behind closed doors and into a public area, your chances of being harmed by your attacker will be significantly reduced. In some neighborhoods, that is maybe jumping out of the frying pan into the fire, so think strategically.

Calling the police can be a good tactic, but if your attacker knows that you’re attempting to do that, or if you inform them that you have done so, this could serve to enrage them further. Their behavior could become unpredictable and consequently more dangerous. That is especially the case if they adopt a “nothing to lose” mindset. It’s usually best to conceal attempts to contact police, and to put as much distance between you and the attacker as possible.

Once you’re away from the threat of immediate harm, the next step is to seek medical attention for any injuries that may have been infliceted on you. According to prominent Carlsbad domestic violence attorneys Fischer & Van Thiel, the important thing at that stage, apart from making sure you’re appropriately treated, is to gather any documentation of your injuries that you possibly can. This may include photographs of the injuries, written reports or testimony from the people providing treatment to you, and so on. It is really vital that you inform the medical personnel that your injuries are the result of a domestic violence incident. This will help them to give you the best assistance.

Your next step should be to get yourself a lawyer. While the police can deal with the immediate threat and can help get you to safety, they’re not going to be of much help beyond that immediate situation. In fact, police actually make things worse sometimes by arresting the perpetrator. You’re thinking right now that this doesn’t make sense, aren’t you? Having the perpetrator arrested and removed from the scene seems like the ideal outcome, until they make bail and return to the house and inflict further punishment on you.

The problem is that victims are given a false sense of security by the removal of their attacker from the scene. Immediately after the attacker is removed, you should relocate yourself anyway. Go stay with a friend or relative, preferably one that the attacker doesn’t know where to reach. Otherwise get yourself a hotel room. Staying at home could cost you your life, as it has done for many other victims in the past.

Once your attorney has secured a restraining order against your attacker, only then is there any safety in returning to your normal residence. From then on, your attacker is prohibited from approaching you or your home too closely, prohibited from legally owning a firearm (in California), and is required to relinquish any firearms already in their legal possession.

Legal Support for Domestic Violence Cases

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Domestic violence laws are an important protection for people living in America, to make sure that they can feel safe and secure in their own homes, as indeed they should be. Yet these nobly-intentioned laws are among the most over-used and misused laws we have. This is a terrible thing because it undermines the good work that people are doing in protective services and sometimes exposes innocent people to terrible reprisals. In fact, some people have even been killed when they were falsely accused of domestic violence.

Obviously false accusations are a terrible thing, and nobody in their right mind should be tempted along that path. Unfortunately many people who are facing the prospect of divorce or separation are not in their right mind, and may have a distorted view as to what is acceptable. They may, in some cases, resort to all kinds of vicious tactics to try to force their recently estranged partner to capitulate to their demands or otherwise exert influence. That can include making false allegations to authorities, or threatening to do so.

According to leading Carlsbad domestic violence attorneys Fischer & Van Thiel, if you’re in that situation where your partner is threatening to make false allegations against you, it’s going to help in the future if you have some way to record the behavior. If you can discretely (or even overtly) use your cell phone to record the threat, as long as it’s clear that it’s a threat intended to deceive authorities, this evidence could secure victory for you in all future legal proceedings.

Making false accusations is a serious matter and the police may decide to press charges against the person who has wasted their time and placed other people in danger with their frivolous complaint. When police spend time dealing with a false accusation of domestic violence it’s distracting them from their duties where they could be helping other people who really are in trouble.

If you have been falsely accused of domestic violence, if an unjust or malicious restraining order has been issued against you, or if the lies of your partner / ex-partner have caused any harm to you in any way, you should seek the services of a qualified specialist attorney as soon as possible.

Be prepared with any evidence which may show that you are the victim of a calculated attempt to mislead authorities into taking action against you, or to show the social or financial harm that resulted from a false allegation. You may think that your chances are not very good, you may be concerned that what you have is not enough, but really you’re probably not qualified to make that kind of call.

If you were forced out of your own home by a fraudulently obtained restraining order, you can turn that situation around completely. This doesn’t just mean that you get to return to your home, but you can potentially obtain your own restraining order to force them out. The only way to find out is to get a lawyer and talk it through with them.

A lawyer can assess the chances of success based on their experience and training, and they can perform research that may indicate just how likely it is that you can clear your name and recover any assets that have been seized from your possession as a result of the false accusations of domestic violence.

Fighting custody battles? Don’t step into the ring without legal support.

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The most important factor in most divorces is the matter of child custody. Ideally, when there is no reason to the contrary, parents should have joint custody of their children, but this is not always (or even usually) possible, because the circumstances of the parents wouldn’t allow for it. Circumstances can change, however.

Now there are three potential obstacles you can face when you are contesting a perceived injustice in a child custody dispute. The first of these is that you may have to prove that any allegations made about you suggesting that you should not have custody are untrue or at least that there’s not a shred of evidence that they are true. Judges usually tend to err on the side of caution if they are to err at all. You will also need to prove that your circumstances really have changed, if that is the basis upon which you are challenging a decision. Finally you may need to show that it is in the best interests of all parties for the change to be made.

One of the reasons why custody is often a difficult problem is because when one parent has sole custody, they can receive child support payments from the non-custodial parent. While these payments are supposed to be used entirely for the benefit of the child, it’s no secret that this is not normally the way things go. Parents receiving that “extra income” may be reluctant to see any decrease in the amount, even if their parental responsibility is reduced.

According to leading child custody attorneys, Carlsbad based Fischer & Van Thiel, getting a lawyer should always be your first step in any task of this magnitude. You also need to make sure that you provide full disclosure of anything at all which may be relevant to your case and which your lawyer ought to know. What you tell your lawyer is protected by attorney-client privilege, and your lawyer won’t disclose that to anyone else without your permission, so there’s really nothing you should feel you have to hold back. The more information your attorney has to work with, the easier it will be for them to help you.

Fighting custody battles is not easy, especially when you are already designated as the non-custodial parent. The court looks at all kinds of factors in making these kinds of decisions. Often it is recognized that it is better for children to have contact with both of their parents, but it’s not an open-and-shut scenario.

Some of the factors that may come up for examination include whether either of the parents has remarried since the divorce, the living standards of each parent, and how disruptive it might be to the child’s life and education if they were to move from the home of the custodial parent. The wishes of the child are also taken into account most of the time, when the child is old enough and physically able to express their thoughts.

Prepare for your battle early. Be ready. And give your lawyer all the information they’ll need to help you win the case. This way you can be more confident of a positive outcome for you and your children.

Sometimes the wrong parent gets custody – here’s what to do

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Prior to the 20th century, people didn’t get divorced much. It was socially taboo and usually difficult to obtain a divorce. If there was any dispute over custody of the children from the marriage, it was often granted to the father, who was seen as having greater ability to support the children financially, a stronger disciplinary hand, and better ability to set a good example. How times have changed.

Nowadays courts tend to take the exact opposite view, but on the basis that they believe the stereotype that a mother is better able to care for children than a father is. That view is possibly now a bit out-dated, because there have been so many changes in the way people live that the law hasn’t really been able to keep up.

Mothers do get awarded sole custody more often than men in contested custody disputes, which is an undeniable fact. But it’s not always the best decision.

Of course sometimes it also can go the other way. A father may be granted sole custody when really the mother is the better choice, but this is a much more rare situation. The point is that gender issues aside, courts can make mistakes. Often those mistakes start with mistakes made by the parent who should have been awarded custody but was not.

According to prominent child custody attorneys, Carlsbad based Fischer & Van Thiel, the most common mistake people make concerning this is not providing the right evidence in the right way to help the court make a correct decision. As a consequence, the court could then make an incorrect decision.

The best way to avoid this is to be sure to tell your lawyer every detail, no matter how small or trivial it may seem, so that they will have a full understanding of the evidence and will have the chance to develop a proper strategy to present it. Far too often details are left out due to wanting to avoid a scandal or due to a misplaced sense of loyalty to the former spouse. It’s best to realize that you’ve already moved on past that point, and that your actions moving forward should take into account what is best for you and for your children.

If the safety and well-being of the children is in any way uncertain if they were to remain in the custody of the other parent, it is vital that the court gets to hear your concerns and that any evidence which would prove that the other parent should not be awarded sole custody gets seen. That can only happen if firstly you have a competent lawyer who genuinely cares about your situation and you provide the lawyer with the information necessary to do their work on your behalf.

For the other parent to be granted sole custody, they will usually have to show some cause as to why you should not have joint custody. If the allegations made are provably untrue, or if the evidence against you has been falsified in any way, your lawyer can help you fix these problems too, but only if you make it known that this evidence can be nullified.

Taking care of family after divorce – the legal side of it

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Broken families are hard to mend, and some wounds never heal. We all like to think that these kinds of problems won’t affect our lives-they’re things that happen to other people who aren’t as cool as us-and then suddenly the whole world seems to turn upside down. What happened? How did it all go wrong? Every story is going to be a bit different, but the one thing that strings most of them together is that when the final blow to the marriage really does fall, it’s nearly always an incredible shock to the system.

Most people are going to care about their children after the marriage ends, and they’re going to have all kinds of fears and concerns about what’s going to happen in the months following the divorce.

Taking care of the children is an instinctive and important priority for the majority of parents. Of course there are some people who are not as caring and maybe even neglectful of the proper care of their children. While the laws are meant to make sure that there is fairness for everyone in a family following a divorce, it can sometimes happen that mistakes are made and the outcomes are unfair in many ways.

According to prominent child support lawyers, Carlsbad based Fischer & Van Thiel, you need to get legal assistance at every stage of a divorce, and get it as early as possible. There simply is too much at stake for you to leave anything to chance.

There are two primary concerns for non-custodial parents following a divorce, which are:

  • Being certain that the child support payments they are required to pay are fairly calculated and appropriate for their circumstances, and
  • Being certain that any children in the custody of the other parent are properly provided for and that they are given adequate care

After the divorce, a lawyer can help with these matters. At the very least, they can take steps to check into things for you. One of the possible problems with the law is that courts will normally, in the absence of strong evidence to the contrary, believe that it is in the best interest of children to remain in the custody of their mothers. Custody can be important, because the non-custodial parent will have to make child support payments to the custodial parent.

In addition to this, when mothers obtain restraining orders against their husbands, it can be almost impossible for the husband to obtain joint custody. These circumstances have given rise to unfortunate evolutionary behaviors such as paternity fraud and malicious filing of restraining order complaints. As a consequence, thousands of men have been stuck paying child support for kids that are not theirs and that they have never met, while others have found themselves cut off from children they have helped to raise and love dearly.

Whatever situation you have found yourself in as a result of divorce, it’s important to get a lawyer’s help if you’re being treated unfairly or if you have any concerns about the care and well-being of your children. Help is possible, and the sooner you take action, the better the chances.

After the split, what about the kids? A guide to child support

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Divorce is never simple or clean, no matter how amicable things may appear to be, or how much you’re both in agreement about the need for change. In fact, it’s extremely rare that things go that well, but supposing that they do, it’s still going to be messy. There will be all kinds of legal and financial details to be sorted out, and of course the big one is if there are any children from the marriage, what is going to happen about them.

Parents are sometimes able to work out mutually acceptable child custody arrangements between themselves, and that’s always a good thing. But it’s also rare. Many people actually try to use custody as a way of inflicting emotional pain on their former spouse, or try to use it as leverage either to save a dying marriage or to force the other party to agree to something they otherwise might not. And on the issue of child support, most people are totally unprepared for what they should expect.

According to high profile child support lawyers, Carlsbad based Fischer & Van Thiel, you should seek legal help with managing every aspect of a divorce or break up, from the moment that you first make a firm decision that you’re not going to stay together. Every move you make from that point on is going to have a big influence on the eventual outcome, even if it may be difficult to see that in the beginning.

Child support payments in California are supposed to be fair. There are some complications with the law that mean that they’re not always what most people would consider fair, and sometimes they’re really going to look totally unfair. Without a legal expert on your side, correcting any unfairness will be practically impossible, and even with a lawyer it can still be a lengthy and complex process. Every case is different, but good lawyers can usually obtain solutions that work for the best interest of their clients.

In California, the payments are based on a calculation which takes into account the income of both parents, looking at which parent has custody, which earns more, how much of the time the non-custodial parent takes care of the child, and other factors like that. This provides a ballpark figure that the judge can use as a basis for determining how much child support should be paid, but it’s not beyond revision either up or down. The judge still has some say in what the final amount will be.

Anyone with concerns that the amount of child support that they pay or receive is unfair, that they shouldn’t be required to pay it at all, or that the money they do pay isn’t being used appropriately, should get advice from an attorney. You may well have some chance of setting things straight. Even if a situation seems impossible, the right legal approach to it can sometimes yield a positive result.