Domestic violence cases can significantly influence various aspects of family law, especially child custody arrangements. When such charges arise, they often lead to complex legal challenges and considerations that can impact a parent’s rights and responsibilities.
You can read a transcript of the interview below.
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Interview Transcript
Scott Michael Dunn: What do I do about child custody in domestic violence cases?
Steve Waterkotte: Well, that’s typically a family law question. We usually will help navigate that, but at the end of the day we don’t do family law.
How that domestic assault charge could come into effect is through orders of protection, which then can affect your custody rights, right? And then, obviously if you have a divorce pending or it is some sort of custody order, you’ll see the victim file a modification of that based on, “Hey, he’s got a violent history.”
We’ll refer folks to family lawyers that we know and trust. A lot of times we’ll work side by side while they’re handling the family law case, we’re handling the criminal law case.
We want to make sure our client’s supported and has the resources in place for not only the criminal case. Because that’s a major thing. Your rights to your children and how often you can see them or visit them and things like that.
So it’s more of a family law question, although it does kind of have some overlap into our area. We have a handful of family law attorneys that we refer cases to that we know do good work for our clients and we’ll work kind of in conjunction with them. [We] keep each other apprised of what’s going on in each other’s cases to make sure we’re putting our client in the best possible position.
If you need Missouri’s leading domestic violence defense lawyers to defend your rights and freedom, speak to a criminal defense attorney today at (314) 900-HELP or contact us online for a free case review.
