Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Domestic Violence

How do I dissolve a Florida domestic violence injunction? This is a question many have because an injunction affects many aspects of life such as the ability to possess firearms and to hold certain jobs. According to Florida law, “A party seeking to dissolve an injunction for protection entered against him has the burden to establish changed circumstances sufficient to “demonstrate that the scenario underlying the injunction no longer exists so that continuation of the injunction would serve no valid purpose.” Bradley v. Sylman, 5D21-649 (Fla. 5th DCA July 23, 2021).

In this case, a stalking injunction was entered with the consent of the accused in 2019. Two years later, he filed a motion to dissolve the injunction, alleging “that he had been arrested for cyber stalking on May 31, 2019, that he had worn a GPS monitoring device from May 31, 2019 to August 6, 2020 without any violations, and that he had pled no contest to misdemeanor stalking for which he had been adjudicated guilty and ordered to pay court costs. The motion further alleged that he resided ‘several miles from [the victim’s] place of residence and employment.’” He also attached a deposition transcript from his criminal case with testimony from the victim that she had only met him 26 days prior to the stalking incident. Last, he generally alleged he had moved on with his life and that there had been no contact between him and the victim since he was arrested for cyberstalking in May 2019.

After a hearing at which the court announced it would take judicial notice of the deposition transcript and the motion, the victim testified she was still in fear of the convicted stalker and acknowledged there had been no contact between them for over a year and a half. The trial court eventually entered an order dissolving the injunction, finding it served no “valid purpose.” The victim appealed.

The appellate court found there were insufficient allegations made by the convicted stalker to support dissolving the injunction. The court also held “More importantly, we conclude that the evidence presented at the hearing was woefully insufficient to support the granting of [the stalker’s] motion. [The victim] did not stipulate to the ‘facts’ set forth in the unverified motion to dissolve injunction or made during opposing counsel’s closing argument. In the absence of a stipulation, unsworn representations of counsel about factual matters do not have any evidentiary weight.” The court went on “Furthermore, although a deposition may be judicially noticed, it does not mean that all of the contents of a deposition are admissible. [internal citations omitted]. Here, the deposition given by Bradley in the criminal case was never moved into evidence. In essence, the only actual evidence presented to the trial court was [the victim’s] testimony. That testimony clearly did not support the granting of [the stalker’s] motion.”

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