Our experienced Broward County domestic violence lawyers handle all types of domestic violence cases. When we aggressively defend these cases, we strive to exonerate our clients entirely; if exoneration is not possible given the particular facts of a given case, we aim at having the charges lessened and/or the penalties made less harsh.
In both misdemeanor and felony domestic violence cases, including those involving battery, aggravated battery, false imprisonment, strangulation, etc., a batterer’s intervention program is often listed as a condition of probation, community control, or another type of court-ordered community supervision. Batterers’ intervention programs are called for and authorized by s. 741.32, which provides that the community-focused programs shall serve to, among other things, hold “perpetrators of domestic violence accountable for their acts.”
Batterers’ Intervention Programs
Subsection 948.038 of the Florida State Statutes mandates that this type of program be included in the sentencing of individuals convicted of a domestic violence offense who have received, as part of their punishment, a sentence of probation, community control, or any other type of court-ordered community supervision. Subsection 948.038 is listed below:
948.038 Batterers’ intervention program as a condition of probation, community control, or other court-ordered community supervision.— As a condition of probation, community control, or any other court-ordered community supervision, the court shall order a person convicted of an offense of domestic violence, as defined in s. 741.28, to attend and successfully complete a batterers’ intervention program unless the court determines that the person does not qualify for the batterers’ intervention program pursuant to s. 741.325. The batterers’ intervention program must be a program certified under s. 741.32, and the offender must pay the cost of attending the program.
How An Attorney Can Help
Our aggressive attorneys know, from decades of experience, that the batterers’ intervention program is typically a requirement of the aforementioned types of offenses, unless the charges in the case are dropped, a type of result that our legal defense work often yields. When the charges are not dropped, and when there is a strategically-determined plea or a conviction, and the penalty does include probation, community control or another form of court-ordered community supervision, the defendant is typically sentenced to a period of twenty-six (26) weeks in this program. Defendants must, as the statute stipulates, cover the cost of the program and, if they fail to complete the full course, they could find themselves in violation of their probation, which can lead to harsh consequences.
Our experienced lawyers at the Law Offices of Leifert & Leifert have years of experience handling cases of domestic violence. Our attorneys are uniquely skilled at defending these types of cases because our lawyers are all former prosecutors—the people who used to be the ones prosecuting these cases are now the ones defending them. Thus, with the retention of our attorneys in your criminal defense matter, you will have both expert legal know-how and invaluable inside knowledge of the local court system.
