Who actually controls the case.
The most common misunderstanding in this area is about who is in charge. People believe that if the person who called withdraws the complaint, the case ends. It does not. The prosecution belongs to the district attorney, who can and routinely does proceed without the complainant's cooperation, using the recorded call, the photographs, the body camera footage and what was said at the scene.
That has a practical consequence people learn too late. A great many of these cases arise from a single argument that escalated, in a relationship that continues afterwards. Both parties then try to fix it between themselves, and every attempt to do so becomes evidence. Calls from custody are recorded and reviewed. Messages are produced. Contact in breach of a protective order is a separate offence regardless of who initiated it.
Charges here also cover a wider range of relationships than most people expect. Penal Code 273.5 applies to spouses, former spouses, cohabitants, former cohabitants, people in a dating relationship and the other parent of a child. The section was amended in 2024.
Domestic violence charges I defend.
These are the domestic violence and related charges I defend across California.
Common domestic violence charges
- Domestic battery (Penal Code 243(e)(1)). A misdemeanour requiring no visible injury at all. Any unlawful touching is sufficient. Amended in 2024.
- Corporal injury on a spouse or partner (Penal Code 273.5). Requires a traumatic condition, which can be minor. A wobbler, and the principal charge in this area. Amended in 2024.
- Violating a protective order (Penal Code 273.6). A separate offence, committed by contact even where the protected person initiated it.
- Child endangerment (Penal Code 273a). Added where children were present, whether or not they were involved.
- Damaging a telephone line (Penal Code 591). Charged where a phone was taken or damaged during an argument, which happens more often than the section's title suggests.
Serious and felony charges
- Criminal threats (Penal Code 422). Words alone can support it, and it is a strike when charged as a felony. Amended in 2025.
- Stalking (Penal Code 646.9). Often charged from messages sent after a separation. Amended in 2024.
- False imprisonment (Penal Code 236). Charged where someone was prevented from leaving a room, which is a low threshold.
- Assault likely to produce great bodily injury (Penal Code 245(a)(4)). A strike offence, charged on the force alleged rather than the injury caused.
- Elder or dependent adult abuse (Penal Code 368). Applies where the alleged victim is over 65 or a dependent adult. Amended in 2024.
Charges often filed alongside
A single incident commonly produces several counts, and the ones added afterwards are often the ones that cause the most difficulty.
- Witness or victim intimidation (Penal Code 136.1). Very frequently added from recorded custody calls, and it is a strike in some forms. Amended in 2025.
- Definition of domestic violence (Penal Code 13700). Determines which relationships bring a case within this framework at all.
- Battery with serious bodily injury (Penal Code 243(d)). Charged where the injury is characterised as serious, which is contested regularly. Amended in 2024.
Orders, conditions and consequences
- Mandatory probation conditions (Penal Code 1203.097). Sets the minimum terms on any domestic violence probation, including a 52-week batterer's programme. Amended in 2024.
- Firearm prohibition (Penal Code 29805). A domestic violence misdemeanour carries a ten-year state prohibition and a separate lifetime federal one. Amended in 2024.
- Record relief afterwards (Penal Code 1203.4). What is available once the case is over, and what a dismissal does not reach.
If a protective order has been issued, read it before doing anything else. It binds you regardless of what the other person wants, and violating it is the most common way a manageable case becomes a serious one.
What a conviction can cost.
A domestic violence conviction carries consequences that are unusually structured, because much of what follows is mandatory rather than discretionary.
- The 52-week programme. A batterer's intervention programme is a mandatory condition of domestic violence probation under Penal Code 1203.097, and it runs for a year.
- Firearm rights. A misdemeanour conviction carries a ten-year state prohibition and a lifetime federal one. The federal bar applies even where California law would eventually allow possession again.
- Protective orders. A criminal protective order can restrict where you live and whether you can return home, and it is issued at the first appearance before anything is decided.
- Custody and family court. Family court applies its own standard on its own timeline, and an allegation alone can affect custody before the criminal case is resolved.
- Immigration. Domestic violence convictions are a specific ground of deportability, separate from the general categories.
- Employment and licensing. Particularly consequential for anyone in law enforcement, security, healthcare or any role requiring a firearm.
Because the firearm and programme consequences attach to the conviction rather than to the sentence, what a charge resolves to matters more here than the sentence usually does.
Why these cases are rarely simple.
The complainant cannot end it, and trying makes it worse
The district attorney decides whether to proceed, and these cases are regularly prosecuted with an uncooperative complainant. Meanwhile every attempt by the parties to resolve it privately produces evidence: recorded calls, messages, and potential charges for intimidation or breaching an order.
One side calls, and the other becomes the defendant
Officers responding to a domestic call are generally required to identify a primary aggressor and make an arrest. That decision is made quickly, on limited information, and frequently in a situation where both people have accounts. Being the one who did not call is often the whole of why someone is the defendant.
The first account is not the last word
Statements given at the scene are made by people who are upset, frightened or angry, sometimes intoxicated, and always without advice. Accounts change, and the reasons they change are examinable. So are the photographs, the injuries and whether they fit what was described.
What experience with these cases actually changes
It is knowing which counts tend to be added later, how the firearm consequences actually work in combination, when a resolution avoids the mandatory programme, and how a given county handles protective orders. I have been doing this since 1999.
Whether hiring an attorney is worth it depends on what is at stake beyond the sentence. Because the firearm prohibition, the 52-week programme and the family court consequences attach to the conviction itself, a first misdemeanour here carries more downstream weight than a first misdemeanour in most other areas. Where your work requires a firearm, where custody is in issue, or where immigration status is involved, it is worth advice. Call me and I will tell you honestly what you are facing and what representation would cost.
How I defend these cases.
- Dealing with the protective order — first, because it governs where you can be and what contact is permitted while everything else is pending.
- Investigation — the recorded call, the body camera footage, the photographs, the injuries and the accounts given before anyone had time to reflect.
- Testing the case — whether the injury meets the section charged, whether self-defence applies, whether the primary aggressor determination holds up, and whether each added count is supported.
- Negotiation — with the firearm consequence and the mandatory programme treated as the things that matter, not only the sentence.
- Trial readiness — where the offer does not reflect what the file will support.
- Personal attention — you work with us directly.
I have been licensed to practise in California since 1999, State Bar number 203402, and I defend these cases across nine Northern California counties from offices in Sacramento and Roseville. When you call, tell me whether a protective order has been issued and whether your work requires a firearm.
Where I handle these cases.
I appear in the criminal courts of all nine counties below. Protective order practice varies between them, and it is one of the areas where local practice genuinely affects the outcome.
Sacramento County Placer County Yolo County El Dorado County San Joaquin County Butte County Yuba County Solano County Sutter County
Where a city has enough demand for this charge to warrant its own page, I have written one:
Questions I hear most.
Can the alleged victim drop the charges?
No. The decision to prosecute belongs to the district attorney, not to the person who called. These cases are regularly pursued with an uncooperative complainant, using the recorded call, the body camera footage, the photographs and what was said at the scene. A withdrawal of cooperation is relevant, but it does not end the case.
What is the difference between Penal Code 243(e)(1) and 273.5?
Domestic battery under 243(e)(1) is a misdemeanour requiring no visible injury; any unlawful touching is enough. Corporal injury under 273.5 requires a traumatic condition, which can still be minor, and it is a wobbler that can be filed as a felony. Which one is charged is frequently the most consequential thing in the case — see Penal Code 273.5 in detail.
We have reconciled. Can we just talk to each other?
Not if a protective order has been issued. The order binds you regardless of what the protected person wants, and contact is a separate offence under Penal Code 273.6 even where they initiated it. Contact is also charged as witness intimidation under Penal Code 136.1. If circumstances have genuinely changed, the order can be addressed in court, which is the only safe route.
Will I lose my right to own a firearm?
A domestic violence misdemeanour conviction carries a ten-year prohibition under California law and a lifetime prohibition under federal law. The federal bar continues even after the state period ends. If your work requires a firearm this is usually the most important issue in the case — see weapons charges.
I was defending myself. Why was I the one arrested?
Officers responding to a domestic call are generally required to identify a primary aggressor, and that determination is made quickly with limited information. Self-defence is a complete defence in California, and where both parties have injuries or both have accounts, who was arrested at the scene is a poor guide to what actually happened.
Is the 52-week programme mandatory?
Where probation is granted on a domestic violence conviction, Penal Code 1203.097 makes a 52-week batterer's intervention programme a mandatory condition. It cannot be waived by agreement. That is one of the main reasons the count a case resolves to matters so much here.
What does defending a domestic violence case cost?
It depends on whether it is charged as a felony or a misdemeanour, whether a protective order is contested, and whether the case is likely to resolve or be tried. Call and I will tell you what representation in your situation would cost before you commit to anything.
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