Many times the cases that we see in family court involve one, or both parents, being charged with crimes. The most common type of crime that impacts family law cases, are domestic violence or domestic violence and abuse charges.

It's always important to provide those police reports, if you have them, to your lawyer. If domestic violence has occurred in your relationship and there are not police reports, it may very well call into question whether or not domestic violence really occurred or not.

In one case I had most recently, even though my client had testified that she had been a victim of domestic abuse for many many years when her husband became intoxicated, the court found that because she had never called the police or obtained a restraining order against the other parent that she lacked credibility, and the court was not going to restrict the other parents parenting time despite the fact that she had testified that on multiple occasions she was terrorized and victimized by her spouse.

In situations where there is domestic abuse and where the court believes that domestic abuse has been proven and this involves a child custody case, under the Florida best interests statute a court is permitted as a result of finding the presence of domestic abuse to allow only one parent to have sole decision making over all major decisions effecting the child. So there is a direct impact between being able to prove domestic abuse and domestic violence, and what ultimately will happen with children in a divorce or custody action where a court has to make those kinds of decisions.