Miscellaneous

Budget Casualties in Florida: The Domino Effect

By Anne Skove, Esq.

When a budget is cut, "somethings' gotta give." The latest victim of Florida's budget axe: the Orange County Domestic Violence Court.

Do we need special courts for domestic violence? Before this trend began, domestic violence cases were often heard in family court or criminal court.

Family court was a bad idea. It gave perps the idea that beating up someone was OK, as long as you were related to them. All in the family. Advocates jumped all over this.

Criminal court seems like a better idea. It's a place for serious crimes. But too many judges just didn't get it, asking the same questions most of us have probably asked ourselves in the past: why does she keep going back to him? Why didn't she turn him in? Plus, many domestic violence-related infractions are misdemeanors, and therefore not a high priority -- we're fighting a war on drugs here, remember. Victims were not finding justice in this venue, either.

The specialized courts arose so that judges who had studied the dynamics in abusive relationships were the same judges who got the cases. That seems like too much common sense to ever be put into action, but many dv courts were created.

Now comes the funding crunch. In Orange County, Florida, (and everywhere, really), the budget shortfall works like a row of gravity-prone dominoes. First, the state cut the budget for traffic-hearing officers. The traffic program utilized attorneys trained to hear simple traffic cases so that judges could get to the more difficult work. The court was able to devote the time of a single judge to all domestic violence cases.

Now that the traffic-hearers are gone, that's more work for the judges, including the dv judge.

This is bad not only on its face, but in the face of the current hard economic times. The more stressed-out people get, the more violent they become. Another domino.

See Budget Trims Close Court for Domestic Abuse, Sarah Lundy, Orlando Sentinel (June 25, 2008).

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on June 25, 2008 (boomark / email).