Which officers may a judge order or require to interview the parties in a domestic violence protection case, and over what subjects and territory?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
In the practice file of a protection case, we read the court's order naming the officer it is addressed to, the papers showing the court's location and the alleged actor's residence, and the report returned on the mental and psychological state, motives and actual circumstances.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading takes the verbs at their word: the judge may order or require the family case investigation officer, or the head of a probation office in the territory of the court's seat or of the alleged actor's residence, to interrogate the actor, the victim and family members, or to investigate their mental and psychological state, the motives and causes of the domestic violence crime, and its actual circumstances.
Another reading notes that the two verbs stand side by side without the provision saying when each applies, and that where the judge makes an investigative request to a probation office head, the provisions on investigative requests under the probation law are applied to it, so the file has to show which officer was addressed and on what basis.
Your judgment
If the probation office head does not act on the investigative request, what in the papers would show whether the requirements applied from the probation law were met?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to change which officers may be ordered or required, or if a court decision sets out the content of the probation law provisions applied to an investigative request.