Almost every person who is charged with a domestic violence offence will be prohibited from going to the family home while they wait for their court case to be resolved. You will usually be permitted to have one visit, supervised by the police, to pick up essential belongings. Other than that, you will need to stay away from the family home at all times.
Clients often ask us how they can return to their homes after being charged with a domestic violence offence. The answer is not straightforward, and this outcome is not always achievable. However, if a return home is ever going to happen, there are a few steps that you can take to help accomplish this.
The first and most important step is that you must be sure to follow all of your bail conditions to the letter at all times. Any breach in your bail conditions lessens your chances of having those conditions loosened as it makes it harder for the Court to trust that you will not commit further offences.
The next step is to hire a lawyer to speak with Crown Counsel on your behalf, or else ask Duty Counsel to speak with Crown Counsel during your upcoming court date. Depending on the circumstances, Crown Counsel may be open to changing your bail conditions to allow some contact with the complainant or your children. If the Ministry of Children and Family Development is involved with your family, the Crown Counsel will often defer to them and make changes to suit the Ministry’s plan.
In some cases, you may be permitted to go home through a variation in bail conditions. However, this does not usually happen and will depend on the wishes of the complainant and the nature of the allegations against you as well as your criminal record. If Crown Counsel will not consent to these variations, your lawyer or Duty Counsel can still ask the judge. The judge will either make the requested changes or deny them, depending on your individual circumstances.
You may also be able to go home or have contact with the complainant as part of a pretrial resolution to your charge [link back to pretrial resolution post]. You can help with this step by taking part in counselling related to healthy relationships and anger management. If alcohol or drugs were an issue leading to the offence, you can attend 12-step meetings or individual counselling sessions to help maintain your sobriety. Your lawyer may also suggest other steps you can take to help your case.