Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Domestic Violence
When a party admits to physical violence against another person, is a court required to enter a domestic violence injunction? This is how the wife in the case De Jager v. De Jager, 3D23-1599 (Fla. 3d DCA January 29, 2025) construed the trial court’s rationale when it entered an injunction against her in favor of her husband.
The husband sought an injunction and exclusive use and possession of the marital home after the wife kicked him. She admitted to doing so on a jail call after she was arrested for the battery. The wife appealed after the trial court entered a 2-year injunction against her, arguing “that the trial court had the mistaken belief that it did not have discretion to deny the injunction.”
The appellate court affirmed, holding “[G]iven the context of the trial court’s legally sufficient findings and explanation of the law recorded in the hearing transcript, we are not convinced by the Wife’s argument that the judge was uninformed of the discretion afforded to her by the statute. Because the trial court had broad discretion to grant the injunction and the injunction is supported by competent, substantial evidence in the record, we affirm the Final Judgment of Injunction.”
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