Ways to Poke Holes in Domestic Charges against You

Domestic violence is a severe offense; and, being charged with it comes with a myriad of consequences both for the victim who makes the accusation and family members who are involved in the case. Having a domestic violence charge on your record can change your future in irreparable ways. 

Disallowing visitation to your children, tainting your professional standing in the community, and sometimes even being sentenced to prison are all things that can happen if you don’t defend yourself adequately. 

 

Is it hard to have domestic charges dismissed?

When someone makes an allegation against his or her partner for domestic violence, it isn’t the alleged victim who presses charges; it is the prosecutor who takes over the case. Therefore, even if the victim recants their story and insists that the domestic violence incident never happened, they, themselves, are not able to have the charges against their partner stopped. 

Why are prosecutors are reluctant to drop charges?

The reason that prosecutors are reluctant to drop domestic violence charges is that when someone makes a domestic violence claim, it is typically done so in an emotionally charged state when the pain is fresh.

Once the incident is over, it is not uncommon for the victim to feel remorseful or even guilty. These feelings often bubble up because they reported the incident to the police when they were angry; but, after calming down, want life to go back to how it was before.

If the prosecutor dismisses charges without investigating to find the validity of them, then he is putting the victim in danger if the allegations are true. 

If domestic violence happens once, it is very likely to happen again. And, in most cases, the ferocity of the violence continues to escalate with each incident. So, if the prosecutor isn’t sure that the event didn’t happen, it is their duty as an officer of the court to ensure the safety of the victim who initially reported what happened. 

If you are accused of domestic violence, there are things that you should do to get the charges lessened, or, in some cases, dismissed altogether.

The determining factor that is usually the clincher, regarding whether a prosecutor moves forward with a case, is the amount of evidence that they have that an incident happened. If the accused has no history of violence and there is no evidence that the victim was hurt in any way, then it is much easier for the accuser to get the charges dropped. 

Request the police report.

The final ruling isn’t just about what the victim said to the police officers at the site; it also depends on the police officers’ state of mind at the time of their involvement. If they made any guesses or opinions in the police report that were untrue, then it is possible to claim that they influenced the alleged victim and convinced them to make allegations of domestic violence.

Hire an attorney.

To make sure that you have the representation that you will need to win your case, it is imperative that you hire a domestic assault lawyer in Toronto. A professional will be able to take all the information related to the charges and find inconsistencies and facts to poke holes in the narrative that has been presented to the prosecution.

Question the reliability of the accuser.

If the person who is accusing you of domestic violence has a less than credible history, then it might be possible to question how truthful they are about the events related to the domestic violence incident. 

If they have a history of making allegations that are proven false or even a history of mental instability, then it might be possible to question how accurate their recount of the events was.

If you are being accused of domestic violence, it is vital that you get someone to defend you. Although it is possible for you to handle the charges on your own, it is not recommended. 

Being convicted of domestic violence will forever alter not just your standing in the community, but it can limit where you live, the job you have, and whether you get to see your children or not. Don’t just let things play out in court, make sure that things go your way by hiring a lawyer who knows how to get domestic charges dropped.