What we tell our family law clients when there has been domestic violence!

What we tell our family law clients when there has been domestic violence

If you are a victim of domestic violence,this information is important to know right from the get-go. Also, if you’re in a family law situation right now, if you’re going through it or you’re going through the separation, this information will help you shed a little bit of light about potentially some things that are before you. You need to know this so you are not confronted with this later.

First thing to know- when you are leaving a domestic violence relationship

The first thing to know is that once you leave a domestic and family violence relationship, the perpetrator will often continue to use systems to try to continue to control the victim. This includes the family law system. This includes taking a matter to court. We know in family law that the statistic is 80% in parenting matters has reported domestic and family violence allegations.

After separation, perpetrators will often escalate their controlling behaviour and they will use the children as pawn. This is where it gets really dangerous and it’s really important to get legal advice early. Perpetrators will often use controlling behaviour, intimidating behaviour to try to get the victim to agree to what they want after separation. Perpetrators will threaten that they are going to get 50-50 care of the child or be the primary carer of the child after separation and then they will pursue this line to get to court.

If you are planning on leaving a domestic violence relationship, you need to get legal advice early on!

It’s really important that if you are leaving a domestic and family violence relationship, you get legal advice very early on because often after separation or upon separation, the perpetrator will withhold the children as a tactic. This might not happen straight away, but once you’ve left and on one of the visits, they often withhold. This is one of the main reasons some matters end up in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia, particularly if there’s an emergency and the children are at risk.

Another Tactic Perpetrators use against victims of domestic violence trying to leave the relationship!

Another tactic is the perpetrator will often try to interrupt any connections or supports the victim has by getting in and brainwashing or trying to isolate the victim from the supports. Like we said, it’s really important that you get legal advice early on. You need to understand what you can do in your family law matter.

Reach out to domestic violence supports!

The other thing you need to do is get support in contact with DV Connect Get in contact with 1800Respect, get in contact with a counsellor, call the police if you need to, get a safety plan in place. These things you need to discuss with a DV counsellor or DV Connect. Do these things. Do not put them off. Do them early.

You also need to plan, and you need to document.