Understanding the Process of Dismissing a Domestic Violence Case
How do you get a domestic violence case dismissed? Hi, my name is Carl Birkhead. I’m a Tulsa criminal defense attorney with Wirth Law Office in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I’ve been practicing family and criminal law for almost eight years now, and I want to help you make law easy by just talking a little bit about when and how you can get a DV case against you dismissed.
So it’s not really easy to do, and I want to be very clear about this. The scenario I’m about to lay out does not always work every time, but basically, so let’s say you’re arrested and charged with domestic assault and battery against your partner or someone like that. Who knows why you’re in this situation?
When a Victim’s Statement Change Can Help
Maybe a fight got out of hand. Maybe it was a misunderstanding. Regardless of the situation, typically what ends up happening in these cases is if I’ve got a client that’s being accused of domestic violence, but the alleged victim comes in and says, hey, this didn’t really happen this way, or hey, I don’t really want this to go forward, or I’m having second thoughts. I’m having buyer’s remorse.
Maybe they’ll even come in and say it didn’t really happen exactly the way I told the cops. Whatever the case may be, if the complaining witness is willing to retract their statement on the record, that is a good way to get the case dismissed, or if not dismissed, at least really give me some solid ammunition for negotiation purposes.
The Importance of Voluntary Victim Statements
Typically in those situations, now, I have to be very clear. This can’t be something where if you’re charged with domestic violence, you go to the person who you allegedly were domestically violent to and say, hey, go talk to this attorney. Tell them it didn’t happen. You can’t interfere with them. You can’t force them to do it. They have to do it on their own.
If they come in on their own and say, hey, this didn’t really happen the way that they’re saying it did, or I’m not real comfortable with this moving forward, just come to me. We’ll sit down. We’ll talk it over, and we’ll go ahead and do an affidavit. It’s a signed sworn statement notarized under pain and penalty of perjury.
How We Can Assist You
That affidavit is something that I can then use to go and take to the state and sit down and say, listen, we really need to talk about this case going away, or at the very least, amending these charges. If you’re in this situation and you think that that’s a possible option for you, absolutely give me a call.
Schedule a Low-Cost Initial Strategy Session: Call 918-879-1681
My name is Carl Birkhead. I’m a Tulsa domestic violence attorney with Wirth Law Office, and I want to help you make law easy. Thank you. Call us at 918-879-1681 to schedule a low-cost initial strategy session today.
