Good morning. It is February 3rd, 2022 at 12, noon, and I am making a short video about what is domestic violence? This is just a quick rundown of the things that are considered domestic violence and how do you know whether or not you are either a victim of domestic violence or there is some sort of issue in your relationship. I’ve put together a quick chart for you to look at and it will give you some idea as to how the court looks at domestic violence. Here we have a list of various incidents and I have entitled this, what is domestic violence? And I’ve also separated this into four different levels. I have a one, two, three or four. The reason why I did that is because there’s different levels, there’s different intensity when you’re talking about domestic violence. Level one would be the least serious. Those things that may or may not rise to the level of a restraining order on their own.
I put here to the right of the screen, no restraining order, no RO, that’s because typically yelling, cussing, insulting someone, showing up at someone’s house uninvited, going through their purse, going through someone’s wallet, going through the cell phone to look at content or to look at contacts, that typically in and of itself is not going to get someone a restraining order. However, it depends upon the frequency, so the more that it happens, the more it is becoming harassment and then the more that it’s possible.
However, as a general rule, if you’re looking at level one incidents, yelling, cussing, insulting, those types of things, a restraining order would typically not be granted. I placed on here level two as the next level of severity for domestic violence restraining orders. Those would be throwing things, following someone from room to room, taking one’s car keys, taking one’s cell phone, slamming doors, keeping someone awake at night, forcibly entering a room.
Physical acts
Now we’re talking about physical acts. We’re no longer talking about freedom of speech, yelling at someone, insulting somebody. Now we’re talking about things that’s actually affecting the other person, affecting their peace and quiet, such as keeping someone awake at night or hiding someone’s cell phone. That may or may not rise to the level, but again, is not as serious as some of the other levels of domestic violence.
It’s possible, under certain circumstances, to get a restraining order, but it’s not a done deal for the applicant. Level three would be blocking one’s movements, disabling one’s car, punching walls in the presence of the victim, preventing someone from making a telephone call, breaking things, either that are of personal value to the victim or done in front of the victim, preventing that victim from leaving the room or preventing them from leaving the house.
Now we’re talking not just following that person around, we’re actually talking about physically blocking a person from leaving a room or the home or some space, or forcibly entering into the home, breaking down the door, shoving the door open, breaking down the lock in the bathroom door, those are the types of things that it’s relatively easy to get a restraining order. The more of these level three incidents there are, the easier it will be for the victim to get a restraining order.
Restraining Order Case
If you couple that with level one or level two events, such as slamming doors, keeping someone awake at night, forcibly entering the room, going through one’s purse or wallet, now you’re building a strong restraining order case.
And the final level is of course the most severe, that would be spitting at someone, throwing something at that person, punching the person, pulling their hair, chest bumping that person, poking them, bruising them, grabbing them, restraining and choking them, threatening to kill them.
Saying, “I’m going to get you if you do X, Y, or Z,” or threats of suicide, “I’m going to kill myself” in front of the victim with an ability to do it, such as having a gun. Those things will get you restraining orders. So that is domestic violence in a nutshell. I hope that this helped. This is my video. Hope you enjoyed it.
