By Stephen G. Cobb, Board Certified Criminal Trial Law Specialist

Florida Domestic Violence lawyers are not mind readers but certain patterns exist. If you or someone you love needs a domestic violence attorney, then in addition to limiting your search to certified specialist in Florida criminal trial law you need to consider practical realities. Let’s go through the emotions and the thought process I’ve seen people go through for over three decades. As you will see, this is the voice of experience and not guess work.

Do I really need a domestic violence attorney?

If you are completely okay with going to jail, domestic violence probation, and undergoing 26 weeks of domestic violence batterer’s counseling (without missing a single class), then you do not need a domestic violence attorney to help you. You will suffer a lifetime of collateral consequences (as in “can’t pass a background check for a good paying job”) and also have inexpugnable criminal history in addition to a harsher penalty than is necessary.

So, if you take your case and your life seriously then you definitely need an experienced domestic violence attorney.

The Steps to Success with a Domestic Violence charge

Instead of sticking your head in the ground and relying on “hope”, your first step is to hire an experienced criminal defense attorney with substantial skill handling domestic assault and domestic battery charges in Florida courtrooms. Limit your search to Board Certified Criminal Trial Law Specialists. The best Florida Domestic Assault and Battery lawyers are not designated by “Esq.” for “esquire”. The best are designated by “BCS” which stands for “Board Certified Specialists”.

To make your search for a domestic assault or battery search even easier, look for this logo – ONLY Florida Bar certified criminal law experts can legally use it:

There are many things you need to do to protect yourself from domestic violence charges, whether they are felony or misdemeanor, and whether they are for domestic assault or domestic battery.

Your next step will depend on the legal team and or law firm you work with. However, we always start with your version of the facts about what happened. This is called a Fact Pattern Report,

In domestic assault and battery cases, it’s far too easy to rely upon arrest reports, probable cause statements and body worn camera video and this is a mistake!

Body worn camera has been received in many domestic assault and battery pretrial discovery cases where there was no audio or the video was incomplete, turned off during an investigation or placed to show part of the investigation while deliberately hiding favorable evidence from view.

So, how do you tell us what happened when the police came and questioned you about a domestic violence assault or battery charge? The answer is your written Fact Pattern Report about the factual events that occurred and also a history of the course of the relationship in most cases. This second step is critical. My first jury trial was over 30 years ago and despite multiple “chat sessions”, my client forgot to tell me a critical fact that only became known as we were literally walking into the courtroom with a jury in the box waiting for opening statements. This previously unknown fact meant my client was definitely going to be convicted and sentenced to the maximum. Worse, there was no way I could have thought to ask a question in the category of “did a random plane flying over your house drop a bolt that hit your driveway” type of fact.

So, here is your biggest path to failure with domestic abuse charges whether assault or battery: verbally tell your story over and over again and become very pushy with your legal team for results right now! There are other ways to blow up your life with a first offense domestic assault or battery charge, yet this one is the fastest and most effective method. By verbalizing the events, accuracy is reduced. Plea negations are unable to be conducted as effectively as needed and bad fact pattern cases go to losing jury trials while the domestic assault attorney discovers case destroying facts the hard way. “Fact babbling” with domestic assault and battery lawyers is why first offense, no prior record domestic violence defendants get maximum sentences.

Your case is far too serious to verbally babble about. Instead, write down what is needed over no less than 4 days. Righteous anger is your enemy. Facts, logic and reasoning are your best friends. Write about your domestic abuse case for your attorney, don’t babble.

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