Somerset County Domestic Violence Lawyers

What Constitutes Domestic Violence in New Jersey?

In the eyes of the law, any physical, mental, or verbal abuse could constitute domestic violence given that the abuse threatens the person’s life, emotional health, or mental health. This distinction can be a bit broad for many people. What one considers domestic violence, another may consider just a bad marriage or poor communication skills.

Whether you feel you have been the victim of domestic violence, or your spouse has made a charge against you that you do not agree with, it is important to find a team of Somerset County domestic violence lawyers who understand the laws in New Jersey and can help you find the solution you need to prevail.

Examples of Domestic Violence in New Jersey

As true as it is that some individual people disagree on what constitutes domestic violence, the same reigns true of individual states. The New Jersey Prevention of Domestic Violence Act was passed in 1991 to better outline what is considered abuse and to help protect those who have fallen victim to violence, both physically and emotionally.

According to the annual report of the same act, over 40,000 domestic violence complaints were reported in New Jersey in the span of only one year.

New Jersey is a state that recognizes domestic violence comes in many forms, and some are not as clear-cut. In the state, the following are considered acts of domestic violence:

• Assault: In an assault, one person is physically threatened or struck by another person. In these situations, one person intentionally or recklessly causes bodily injury to another person, uses a deadly weapon on them, threatens their life with a weapon, or physically threatens another (including when a parent threatens their child in front of or to the other parent.)
• Harassment and Verbal Abuse: Continual offensive remarks, name-calling, consistent screaming, or regular put-down remarks can be considered verbal abuse. Contacting another person at unreasonable hours can also be considered harassment. Striking, kicking, or shoving another person, touching them in a way they do not consent to, threatening violence, or acting in a way that would cause serious alarm or annoyance to a reasonable person can also be considered harassment.
• Terroristic Threats: A terroristic threat includes when someone’s life is threatened with physical violence or when someone threatens to kill another person or the people they love. Both acts are committed in an attempt to cause extreme fear to receive what they are asking for.
• Mental or Emotional Abuse: When a victim is socially, physically, or emotionally isolated from others, they have experienced mental or emotional abuse. Other acts under this definition include forcefully controlling finances, extreme limits on necessities such as food or shelter, and neglect of children.
• Sexual Abuse: Any person who is forced into any act of a sexual nature has been a victim of sexual abuse. This abuse is committed when a sexual act occurs between two people, whether they are strangers, married, parent to child, or in any other relationship, where one person does not consent either by saying no or not being in a position to give such an answer. Previous consensual activity between the two individuals does not make a later non-censual act legal.

Contact Our Seasoned NJ Family Lawyers Today

Homes should be where people go to feel safe; not where acts of violence and manipulation occur. If you are the victim of domestic violence of any kind and do not feel safe in your own home, or you feel you are being accused of violence to aid a spouse’s case against you in court for child custody or divorce settlement, contact the Somerset domestic violence lawyers at the Law Offices of Kisha M. Hebbon today.