Domestic Violence Battery How Did I Get Here?

When we talk about domestic violence battery in Florida on the misdemeanor level we are really just talking about a simple battery where the relationship between the defendant and the victim is that they are either family members or household members.

As always when we’re talking about law this is defined under the statute. Specifically family or household members are:

Spouses former spouses meaning an ex-husband or an ex-wife, individuals related by blood or marriage such as brothers or sisters, individuals who were residing together as a family at the time of the offense or had resided together as a family in the past.

Now what this residing together as a family means is that roommates would be excluded as they are just sharing an apartment or a house and not living together raising a child or in an intimate setting.

New people believe that living together is the element that transforms a simple battery into a domestic violence battery but that’s not actually the case.

Remember relatives by blood or marriage such as brothers or sisters do not need to be residing together and also the child in common exception.

A defendant and a victim that have a child in common whether they live together or not will result in a simple battery being filed as a domestic violence battery in Florida.