GLASTONBURY, CONNECTICUT · FAMILY LAW + FAMILY-VIOLENCE DEFENSE
Family violence changes a custody case, and Connecticut’s family statutes define it more broadly than many people expect.
National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233
CT Safe Connect: (888) 774-2900 — 24/7, by call, text, chat, or email
C.G.S. §46b-56(c) directs the court to consider the effect of any domestic violence on the child, alongside the child’s safety and the other best-interest factors.
Under C.G.S. §46b-1(b), added by Public Act 21-78 — Jennifer’s Law — “domestic violence” for purposes of Connecticut’s family statutes includes coercive control: a pattern of behaviour that unreasonably interferes with a person’s free will and personal liberty. The statute gives examples, including isolation from support, deprivation of basic necessities, controlling or monitoring movements, communications or finances, and compelling conduct through threat or intimidation.
Physical violence is not required. Coercive control is a family-law concept rather than a separate crime.
Supervised visitation, exchanges at a neutral location or through a third party, restrictions on contact between the parents, orders about communication, and in appropriate cases substantial limits on a parent’s time.
A criminal protective order from a pending criminal case can restrict contact with a household — including children — before the family court has ruled on anything. In practical terms the criminal court often sets the starting position.
Specific, documented, and contemporaneous evidence is what moves a court: records made at the time, communications in full context, police or medical records where they exist, and witnesses.
What undercuts a genuine concern is overstatement. Raising everything with equal intensity makes the serious items harder to see.
Allegations are not findings, and they are subject to proof. The response is evidence and a hearing — not contacting the other parent, and not ignoring any order in place.
If there is a criminal case as well, the two will interact, and decisions in one affect the other.
An arrest during a separation creates two cases on two schedules. How a protective order affects custody, and why the two cases cannot be handled in isolation.
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How Connecticut restraining orders work under C.G.S. §46b-15 — applying, responding, the hearing, and what an order does. Glastonbury attorney Daniel M. Morton.
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Connecticut custody attorney Daniel M. Morton on legal and physical custody, parenting plans, relocation, and how judges decide. Glastonbury office.
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Every case starts with a conversation about what you’re facing and what it would take to handle it.
