Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Domestic Violence
What does a court consider when someone asks for a Florida domestic violence injunction to be dissolved? In order to dissolve an injunction based on changed circumstances, the person asking for this must “demonstrate that the scenario underlying the injunction no longer exists so that continuation of the injunction would serve no valid purpose.” Bak v. Bak, 4D20-1676 (Fla. 4th DCA January 19, 2022) (internal citation omitted).
In 1999, the former wife obtained a permanent injunction against the former husband for domestic violence. Their marriage was dissolved after that. The former husband first unsuccessfully attempted to dissolve the injunction about 13 years later. He then tried again two years later, but the court denied this request because the parties still had minor children and the former wife established a reasonable fear of becoming a victim of domestic violence again. Five years later, the former husband again petitioned for dissolution of the injunction, and this was again denied, even though by this time 22 years had passed since the injunction was originally entered, and the parties’ children were no longer minors. The former husband appealed.
The appellate court reversed, holding “Here, as the former husband argues, the judge who heard his second motion to dissolve the injunction found the former wife had a reasonable fear of the former husband because a minor child remained in her home. By the time the current judge heard the third motion to dissolve the injunction, no children resided with the former wife. Testimony also revealed the former wife had asked the former husband to come to her home to put up hurricane shutters. She had also asked him to stay with her during a hospital emergency room visit. He had dinner at her house on a couple of occasions and they had eaten at a restaurant once. In a 2000 deposition, the former wife testified that she no longer feared the former husband. The record also reflects the former husband suffers collateral consequences because of the injunction. The former husband owns a high-end art moving company. He has been denied jobs when people learn that he had a restraining order in place. He is subjected to ‘regular and unnecessary searches of his business trucks’ and interference with his international travel. And he has been denied loans by banks because some lenders check his record and see the injunction still in place. [. . .] Given the record testimony of their interactions over the last twenty years and the change in circumstances, the former husband ‘demonstrate[d] that the scenario underlying the injunction no longer exists so that continuation of the injunction would serve no valid purpose.’”
If you need help in a case in which you or the other party is requesting to dissolve an injunction, schedule a consultation with a Miami family law attorney to understand how the law may apply to the facts of your case.