What this charge means
Connecticut does not have a crime called domestic violence. What it has is a category, family violence, that attaches to an ordinary charge when the other person is a family or household member. That includes a spouse or former spouse, a parent or child, someone you live with or lived with, someone you have a child with, and someone you are or were dating. The underlying charge is usually disorderly conduct, breach of peace, assault in the third degree, threatening, or risk of injury to a minor if a child was present.
Once the arrest is labeled family violence, a separate set of rules takes over. The police must arrest if they find probable cause, even if the other person does not want them to, and sometimes both people are arrested. You are held or released with conditions until court the next business day. A Family Relations officer interviews you before you see the judge. The judge issues a criminal protective order. The case is tracked on a family violence docket and the other person is assigned a victim advocate.
You do not have to have hit anyone. Many family violence arrests involve an argument, a thrown object, a blocked doorway, or a text message, charged as disorderly conduct or breach of peace.
The statute
Family violence is defined in Connecticut General Statutes section 46b-38a. It covers an incident between family or household members that results in physical harm or creates fear of imminent physical harm, including threats and stalking, and it lists who counts as a family or household member. Verbal abuse or argument alone is not family violence unless there is a present danger and a likelihood that violence will occur.
Section 46b-38b sets the arrest rules: a peace officer who finds probable cause for a family violence crime must arrest, without regard to whether the other person wants it, and the officer's own evaluation controls in a dual-arrest situation. Section 46b-38c creates the family violence response and intervention units, requires arraignment on the next court day, authorizes the criminal protective order, and establishes the Family Violence Education Program. Section 54-63c(b) lets police impose release conditions overnight before the court acts.
The underlying charges most often used are disorderly conduct, section 53a-182, a Class C misdemeanor; breach of peace in the second degree, section 53a-181, a Class B misdemeanor; assault in the third degree, section 53a-61; threatening in the second degree, section 53a-62; and risk of injury to a child, section 53-21, a felony charged when a child was present or involved. Violating the protective order once it issues is a separate felony under section 53a-223.
Your right to contest the protective order at a hearing comes from the Connecticut Supreme Court's decision in State v. Fernando A., 294 Conn. 1 (2009), which interpreted sections 54-63c and 46b-38c.
How penalties are set
The sentence follows the underlying charge, not the family violence label. Disorderly conduct and breach of peace are low-level misdemeanors; assault in the third degree and threatening are Class A misdemeanors; risk of injury to a minor is a serious felony. The table on this page shows the range for each.
The family violence label adds consequences that are not sentences. The protective order stays in place for the life of the case, which can be months, and it controls where you can live and whether you can see your children. If you own firearms you must surrender them once the order issues. A conviction for a family violence crime, even a misdemeanor, carries a federal firearms prohibition for life, and it is a factor in any later custody or divorce proceeding. For non-citizens a family violence conviction can be a ground for removal.
Violating the protective order is its own felony, charged and sentenced separately from whatever started the case, and it is the most common way a minor family violence case becomes a serious one.
How diversion works
The Family Violence Education Program under section 46b-38c is the program written for these cases. You apply in court, the victim has a right to be heard, and if the judge grants it you attend a set of classes, nine sessions for most participants, over a period of months. If you complete the program and comply with the protective order, the charge is dismissed. It is generally available for misdemeanors and some lower felonies, and generally not for a person who has used it before or who has a prior family violence conviction.
Accelerated Rehabilitation under section 54-56e is sometimes used instead, particularly where the charge is a felony that the education program does not cover, or where a defendant has already used the education program. It involves a longer supervision period and is granted once.
Neither program lifts the protective order on its own. The order continues until the judge modifies it or the case ends.
What happens at arraignment
This is the most important court date in the case, and it happens fast: the next business day after the arrest, often the next morning. If you were held, you will be brought in. If you were released with conditions, those conditions, usually no contact and no return to the home, apply until the judge acts.
Before court opens, a Family Relations officer will meet with you. They will ask about the relationship, the history, and your living situation, and they will make a recommendation to the judge about the protective order. Be polite and brief. You do not have to discuss the incident, and anything you say can be repeated in court.
The judge will then issue a criminal protective order. There are three levels. A partial order tells you not to threaten, harass, or assault the person but lets you live at home and have contact. A residential stay-away order keeps you out of the home. A full no-contact order bars any contact at all, direct or through someone else, including text messages and social media. The judge usually follows the Family Relations recommendation.
If you disagree with the order, you or your attorney must ask for a Fernando A. hearing at this appearance. At that hearing, held within a reasonable time afterward, the State has to prove the order is still necessary, and you can present evidence and witnesses. If you do not ask at arraignment, you lose the right to that hearing and can only ask the judge later to modify the order.
Bring your arrest paperwork, a photo ID, and the address where you will be staying if you cannot go home. Do not contact the other person before court, even if they contact you first. The order runs against you, not them.