"What counts as domestic violence in California?
Hi, I’m Ryan Waller, family law attorney and co-author of California Family Law. A widely used textbook exploring various complex family law issues written for practitioners and law students alike. So in California, domestic violence is not limited to only physical harm. The legal definition of abuse which is what we’re looking for when asking for a domestic violence restraining order, includes a wide range of conduct that can affect a person’s safety, autonomy, or emotional well-being beyond their physical safety.
So physical violence, things like hitting, pushing, choking, sexual assault, destroying property, acting aggressively and in a threatening manner, those are obvious signs of abuse and domestic violence. But domestic violence can also include things like threats, stalking, or harassing behavior. Any behavior that places someone in reasonable fear of harm and those things might not always be so visible.
California courts also consider conduct that disturbs the peace of another person. And this is a pretty broad range of categories. It can include things like persistent intimidation, isolating someone from friends or family, controlling access to money, using technology to monitor to stalk or harass someone. This could be things like tracking devices. Obsessive texting. Someone sending you messages over and over and over again. Maybe those messages are threatening as well. Taking control of someone’s accounts or devices, hacking into their accounts. All of those things, qualify as conduct that disturbs the peace of another and would qualify as abuse under the California Family Code.
When judges are dealing with these issues, they’re not looking at just a single incident. Now, that’s not to say you can’t get a restraining order based off of one single incident. It’s just that judges also like to look at the pattern, examine the overall pattern and history of behavior over time between the parties to see how that person’s conduct has affected yours. Your daily life, your emotional stability, and your ability to function safely. That’s what judges are going to be looking for. The evidence that you can use to prove this, those are going to be things like text messages, emails, social media communications. Maybe you’re going to have call logs showing hundreds of phone calls in a single day. Maybe there’s photographs or police reports, maybe there’s medical records from an injury, or there’s a third party witness testimony. Someone who saw what happened and can talk about it if it’s safe to do so. If you’re in one of these situations and it is safe to do so, I strongly encourage you to keep a log of events that are happening, dates, times, what occurred, who witnessed it. These are the things that will become helpful later on if you’re trying to pursue your restraining order. Preserving digital evidence carefully is important as well. Don’t delete your text messages. Don’t erase your call log or history. Those are the things that are going to come up to help corroborate your claims of abuse.
Domestic violence findings can also have significant consequences. This can impact things like a long term or permanent restraining order that can affect custody. It can affect your support determination. So this is a serious issue with major impacts in a dissolution case. And because California’s legal definition of abuse is broader than most people realize. A careful evaluation of the specific facts going on in your case is critical. Not only before you take legal action but to protect yourself and monitor your behavior."
.2605120857228.png)