Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Domestic Violence
How recent must allegations of domestic violence be in Florida to support an injunction? In order to obtain an injunction, one element that must be proven is that the victim has reasonable cause to believe he or she is in imminent danger of becoming a victim of domestic violence. If the last act of domestic violence occurred over a year ago for example, the victim may have trouble proving reasonable case to believe imminent danger. This was an issue in the case Woods v. Woods, 5D22-825 (Fla. 5th DCA February 24, 2023).
The wife sought a domestic violence injunction against her husband. After conducting hearings over days, the court concluded that while domestic violence had occurred, the acts were too remote in time to establish the wife had a reasonable cause to believe she was in imminent danger of becoming a victim of domestic violence. She appealed.
The appellate court declined to overturn the trial court’s ruling. It held “‘A trial court's ruling on a petition for a domestic violence injunction is reviewed for abuse of discretion.’ Delgado v. Ortiz, 326 So. 3d 203, 203 (Fla. 5th DCA 2021). ‘In conducting this review, this Court focuses on whether the trial court’s determination is supported by competent, substantial evidence, with a focus on the legal sufficiency as opposed to the evidentiary weight.’ Id. Here, the trial court took testimony and had the ability to evaluate the parties and their circumstances from a vantage point far superior to ours. We conclude that the trial court’s decision is supported by competent, substantial evidence and finding no abuse of discretion on the part of the trial court in denying the petition for injunction, we are obliged to affirm.”
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