When one spouse accuses the other of domestic violence, the court may act quickly to protect that person and any children by putting out an emergency protection order.
Typically, this order will mandate that the accused has no contact at all with the other party. This means leaving the family home and finding a new place to live. It means never calling, texting, emailing or contacting that person on social media.
Obviously, those are huge ramifications, and some warn that the standard used to issue the order isn’t all that high. After all, the goal isn’t to prove what happened initially. That could take weeks or months. The goal is to protect the other family members from the reported threat.
In cases where the allegations are true, that’s good. However, the problem arises when the allegations are false or the aggressive actions are exaggerated or taken out of context. In these instances, the accused could still lose his or her rights to see the kids and live in the home.
In some cases, people will even do this when they’re going through a breakup or a divorce. Generally, the person making the accusations wants sole legal and physical custody of the kids. The other parent also wants custody or visitation rights. The false accusations will be made in an effort to get the court to rule a certain way.
By no means is this to say that all allegations are false, but it’s still important to understand that this does happen. Those who are falsely accused have to know their legal options, especially when parental rights are in jeopardy.
Source: The Spruce, “False Domestic Abuse Claims,” Jeffery M. Leving, accessed Jan. 25, 2018