Consequences of a Restraining Order in Las Vegas

 

People file restraining orders in Las Vegas for a variety of reasons. In many cases, it is often a preemptive measure to protect the plaintiff and/or their extended family from dealing with intrusive individuals. More commonly, it is used in the face of perceived or real life threats to the plaintiff. Lastly, it is mostly used to keep a spouse away from the children while divorce proceedings are underway.

Some defendants facing a restraining order in Las Vegas may be dismissive about their situation and see it only as a minor inconvenience. After all, the initial order only covers a brief period and the extended period may be long or short depending on the results of the hearing. However, the consequences of an extended restraining order can be more dire than they seem.

Domestic Changes

Restraining orders often require both parties to be far away from each other. The distance can be anywhere between being in the same room to being in the same state. If the plaintiff is your spouse, chances are you share the same abode; receiving the restraining order means you will have to vacate your home for the duration that the order is in effect.

You not only stand to lose your own home when you receive a restraining order. You can also expect to be barred from seeing your children throughout the whole period. If you happen to be very involved in raising your children, receiving a restraining order can put a serious strain on your relationship with them.

Consequences with the Larger Family

Restraining orders often involve not just the immediate parties involved, but their respective extended families as well. A restraining order on your legal record can be used against you in a future family law charge that can be brought against you. For example, a restraining order on your record can cast a shadow on any future inheritance disputes.

You also need to remember that restraining orders are inherently tied to divorce proceedings and child support issues. One of the conditions stipulated in a restraining order may require the adverse party to continue providing financial support. If the order is still in effect even after the custodial parent has remarried, the adverse party is still required to pay, even if they still cannot communicate with their child directly.

Other Legal Effects

One must note that restraining orders don’t just have an effect on domestic issues; they also branch out to other aspects of a person’s life. A restraining order is pretty difficult to expunge from your legal records, and can affect your prospects far into the future. For example, it can bar you from getting better employment and educational opportunities, if not outright preventing you from getting either in the first place.

In addition, having a restraining order on your record can affect your eligibility to purchase and own guns in Nevada. Going back to the point about the difficulty of expunging this on your legal record, it may take a while before you can own a firearm. If you already owned firearms prior to the restraining order, it will make it harder for you to regain your guns.

You must not disregard the dire effects of a restraining order on your personal and professional life. Deal with it promptly and effectively with the help of a veteran defense attorney.

A Look Into Alcoholism and Domestic Violence

 There are many factors that are related to or can instigate domestic violence in Las Vegas. It could be stress, genuine animosity, a rough upbringing, jealousy, or any random trigger that is exclusive to the people involved. Each domestic violence case has its own story to tell, and how the circumstances come about are fairly unique.

One of the oft-quoted factors that people consider with regards to domestic violence is that the abusive partner is a raging alcoholic. While it is true that alcohol has properties that can alter a person’s behavior once enough of it gets into a person’s system, does it really have an effect on how a person behaves towards their partner? Let’s take a look into the relation between alcoholism and domestic violence.

A Look at Numbers

In the first place, why do so many people cite alcohol as a factor in domestic violence cases? It’s because it’s been recorded in multiple cases worldwide. World Health Organization records indicate that 55% of domestic abuse cases reported worldwide involved alcohol at least one way or another, mostly involving alcohol consumption prior to an instance of abuse.

On the other side of the scale, the victims themselves would often turn to alcoholism themselves to deal with the pain. Based on recorded cases, domestic abuse victims were 15 times more likely to abuse alcohol themselves after a bout of violence. Note that the number is a global average; the numbers may be higher or lower depending on the country.

How They Are Related

As stated earlier, many people automatically relate excessive alcohol ingestion to personality changes and mood swings that can lead to domestic violence. Others state that the domestic abuse factors in only when the person is truly drunk. Once they sober up, they eventually stop being abusive and may even claim no memory of the abuse in the first place.

Sobriety advocates and medical experts refute this reasoning quite regularly. They point out that alcoholism alone does not act as a trigger for domestic abuse, but is instead only one of many instigating factors for the incident. Sobering up does not always deal with the underlying issue; in some cases, alcohol is only a red herring and other factors are in play, but people may have ignored them.

Is Alcohol Really Significant?

On one end, experts argue that alcoholism is only one factor in a long list of many that can lead to domestic violence. On the other hand, national records indicate that at least 2/3s of recorded domestic abuse cases across the country involved the perpetrator drinking alcohol immediately prior to the incident. With this situation, it is understandable that people are confused about how alcoholism factors into domestic violence cases.

In the end, whether or not alcoholism and domestic abuse are totally related is determined on a case-to-case basis. It may just be an overlap of two negative aspects, or it can just be pure coincidence. It all comes down to the personal experience of the involved parties, the environment they live in, and other issues that may escalate the situation or not.

Domestic violence is a complex and intimate crime, affected by various aspects that may be unique to a case, or similar across a variety of recorded incidents. Whether or not alcohol is related to such cases will be determined in court.