One of the first things you learn in domestic violence training at the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation (AVLF) is that intimate partner violence can occur in any relationship, regardless of gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status or education level. We saw that firsthand with a client we recently represented. She was married to her abuser for decades and had several children with him. Both were highly educated, well-employed, and, to the outside world, had presented as a nearly perfect family. Until he tried to kill her.
When we took on her case, they were divorced, but a recent incident had prompted our client to seek a temporary protective order (TPO). AVLF had helped her obtain a 30-day ex parte order for herself, but our job was to extend the protective order for 12 months and also to extend the protection to her children. We had two means to accomplish this: (1) go before the court, present our client’s testimony and evidence, and hope that the judge agreed that there was a likelihood that violence would happen again; or (2) negotiate a consent order. Based on everything our client told us about her ex-husband, we were not optimistic about our chances of getting him agree to the TPO.
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