First and foremost, you want to make sure that you are following the court order to not have contact with the alleged victim. Even simply calling to apologize or to tell them that you love them is not allowed. Now, if the victim takes it upon themselves to voluntarily contact you then that’s a different story and your attorney will work on making arrangements for the victim to come to court to speak ask the judge to modify the order once you’ve hired. You do not want to appear as if you are trying to tamper with the witness or intimidate them in any way. You want to remain compliant with the orders of the court to stay away from the victim as long as the orders are in effect. That’s the first step.

The second step is to hire an attorney. Domestic violence cases are definitely not the types of cases you want to handle on your own. There are communications that can take place about the legal process through an attorney’s investigator that cannot take place without an attorney. Other than that, you are going to want to start gathering any sort of evidence that may be helpful to your attorney. For instance, if your defense is that it was self-defense and your spouse punched you in the eye and you had bruising, then you want to get photographs of that for your defense attorney. That way, it can be used to negotiate or work towards a dismissal of your case. Complying with the orders, hiring an attorney and compiling evidence for your defense are the first three steps.