What is a Domestic Violence Injunction?

March 2016

Orlando criminal defense attorney Jack Kaleita explains what is a domestic violence injunction, why where they created, the different types of domestic violence injunction available under Florida law and the requirements for each of them:

What is a Domestic Violence Injunction?

"An injunction is a civil remedy, meaning that it’s not a crime in and of itself, although violating an injunction can be a crime.

Basically an injunction is an order from the court, that prevents one person from having contact with another. In the domestic violence context, all of these injunctions were created by the legislature in recent years to combat the issue of what they perceive to be an ongoing expanding problem of domestic violence in the state.

Types of Injunctions

There are a number of different domestic violence injunctions available that people can either defend or seek in Florida. These injunctions are basically:

• domestic violence
• dating violence
• sexual violence
• repeat violence
• stalking

Domestic Violence Injunctions: Requirements and Process

All types of domestic violence injunctions are basically similar in that they have an element of danger to the victim that has to be found by the court before an injunction can be entered. The requirements are a little different for each one, but the process is basically the same. The process involves the person who we’ll call them the victim, going to the clerks office, either at the suggestion of a friend, or the police, or the state attorney, and filling out a sworn pleading call to petition, which is basically an affidavit, a sworn statement, alleging that they have been the victim of one of the things I named earlier. The petition has to meet the statutory requirement for the type of injunction that they’re trying to seek, and that petition is then reviewed by a judge - normally within 24 hours. If the judge believes that the person is in imminent danger, the judge may issue a temporary injunction, but they’ll always set a hearing, a couple of weeks out, to have the issue heard by the court, and a determination as to whether a final injunction, or a permanent injunction should be entered. If the temporary injunction is issued, then the person, after they’re served, the person being the respondent, after they’re served with the injunction, cannot do any of the things that are prohibited until the date of the final hearing.

At the final hearing, the person who the injunction is against, will have the opportunity to defend it, and the judge will look at the allegations that are made in the petition, and oftentimes talk to the petitioner, to see whether the injunction should be granted. It’s not going to be a full trial, it’s going to be, probably at the most, about an hour. It’s almost always something, that if you are the respondent, you want to have an attorney to defend you against. Because having an injunction entered against you can be very serious, it can have a lot of consequences in your life."