Which measures may a judge impose on a domestic violence offender, and what must the judge first find?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
The practice file should hold the hearing record showing what the judge relied on, a copy of the ruling naming the measure ordered, and any paper showing the offender's parental rights or a privately run institution's consent to receive the offender.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading takes the provision at its word: after finding at the hearing that a protective measure is necessary, the judge may decide by ruling any one of the listed dispositions, alone or in combination with the others — restricting approach to the victim or a family member, restricting approach by telecommunications, restricting parental rights where the offender is a parent, community service or an attendance order, probation, placement in a custodial or protection facility, treatment in a medical institution, or counselling.
Another reading reads the limits: the measure binds a domestic violence offender and reaches a family member as well as the victim, while a judge hears the case and decides but the provision does not say how the hearing shows necessity, and where the receiving institution is privately run, the head's consent to receive the offender must be obtained.
Your judgment
What in the hearing record would show that a protective measure is needed, and which of the listed measures fits the facts proved?
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 list of measures is amended, or if a court decision explains what the hearing must show before a protective measure is found necessary.