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| Oscar Pistorius faces a judge at a bail hearing. |
We have only to look to the recent and utterly tragic Oscar
Pistorius premeditated murder case to know that sometimes our emotions get the
best of us when it comes to love and romance.
While we are in no way convicting Mr. Pistorius before his day in court,
it is simply a very sad reminder that domestic violence exists in more homes
than anyone cares to admit.
Particularly in these trying times, the highly emotional
process of divorce has a tendency to bring out the worst in the best among
us. We are all human; thus imperfect.
Divorce is unpleasant for everyone involved even on a good
day. Unfortunately, family law matters
have the potential to devolve into a criminal case.
Professionals in the family law community must be vigilant
in observing and recognizing signs of potential domestic abuse situations. When signs of abuse are manifest, there is an
opportunity to connect the potential victim to local resources to defuse a difficult
and potentially dangerous situation. The
best results occur when an inchoate threat is avoided by proper counseling,
resource sharing, and planning.
For the family law bar, it is also important to counsel clients
to “keep their cool” while undergoing the tumult of a divorce. At times clients feel like they can garner a
tactical advantage by reporting a spouse’s behavior to law enforcement. Sometimes this occurs in the heat of a custody
battle; one parent thinks that repeated Child Protective Service calls will
help them get an evidentiary “leg up”.
Or a spouse elects to manufacture an incident that gets
reported to the local police in order to have the other parent removed from the
household; buttons are pushed until a physical incident occurs.
These are not valid child custody coping mechanisms. A good family law attorney that has her client’s
best interests in mind will vigorously counsel against such tactics. Not only do contrived allegations hurt the
parties, but they waste precious resources and take the focus away from those
who really need the help.
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2 comments:
Very nice blog. Lately we hear about many cases of violence or ever murder in the family. It's very important for an attorney who deals with those cases to specialize in family and criminal law.
That was a very interesting article. I have been doing some research on divorces since one of my friends is going through a rough one. I want to see if there is anything I can do to help. So far her lawyer Marshall Davis Brown has been nothing but helpful to her, which I am glad to see. Thanks so much for the article.
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