Categories for Domestic Violence

The dividing line between felony and misdemeanors as it relates to domestic violence-related offenses is important, because obviously, nobody wants to get hit with a felony, because if you get charged with a felony in a domestic violence case you’re looking at prison time, loss of weapons, loss of the ability to vote. There’s all sorts of bad things that flow from a felony.  Plus, when somebody runs your criminal… Continure reading

What I notice is that a lot of criminal defendants when they’re being charged with domestic violence and it looks like they’re going to have to take a deal on their case because the prosecutors have good evidence against them. For example, they admitted everything when the police came to their own; their spouse or significant other has said a lot of bad stuff about them and there’s photographs of… Continure reading

The prosecutors do have a difficult road when it comes to prosecuting many domestic violence cases because a lot of times what happens — and they are used to this — is that the alleged victim decides they don’t want the person prosecuted. So, now the prosecutors have to deal with somebody in their own camp who is adverse to them and what they’re trying to do.  Realize, the prosecutors… Continure reading

I would say probably one of the first and most important things to do if you’re charged with a domestic violence case is not to put yourself in a position where you’re having any more problems with the alleged victim in the case. This is a common problem that pops up and what will end up happening is number one, they’ll be a full protective order against you so you can’t… Continure reading

If you’re convicted of a domestic violence or spousal abuse case in Los Angeles, you could be facing up to a year in custody.  The sheriffs in LA county usually will let people only serve 10% to 25% of their sentence as of this posting on the website. However, they will keep domestic violence defendants longer in my experience than the average inmate.  That’s one of the crimes that for… Continure reading

People are shocked to know how seriously domestic violence cases are taken in Los Angeles county.  On a first offense there’s bare-minimum sentences that are going to be imposed by the prosecutors if they can find you guilty of a first-time domestic violence or spousal abuse case.  Those minimum sentences — that means there can be additional punishment depending on the circumstances — how bad the injuries were, what your… Continure reading

There’s a number of different defenses in domestic violence cases.  But obviously, before anybody is going to start telling you over the phone what your defense is, they’re going to need to know what the facts and circumstances are surrounding your case.  In other words, what happened?  How are you being accused, arrested, charged with domestic violence, and then you can start to develop your defense. The first step in… Continure reading

Probably one of the biggest factors in a San Fernando Valley domestic violence case relates to the injuries that are inflicted upon the other party.  Obviously, the worse the injuries, the more likely the judge and prosecutor is going to want to send that particular person to jail and punish them.  The smaller the injuries are the better off the person is who’s being charged with domestic violence. Prior Criminal… Continure reading

I’ve been practicing in San Fernando now for twenty-five years and I have a very good familiarity with what is being done related to domestic charges in the San Fernando Courthouse. First off, you have to realize that the District Attorney’s office, who prosecutes felonies in that courthouse, has a special unit that only deals with domestic violence cases.  So, if your case if filed as a felony in the… Continure reading

This is a big problem that comes up a lot in domestic violence cases throughout Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley, at least the ones that I’ve handled.  I have clients calling me saying that their significant other is not going to cooperate.  They’re not going to testify, and therefore, they think they’re just going to automatically win the case. Unfortunately, this is not true.  There’s a lot of… Continure reading