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Domestic Abuse Charges and Your Reputation

If you are facing charges of domestic abuse, get the help of a criminal defense attorney to help mitigate or eliminate the damages

Domestic abuse is a terrible crime, and charges alone can have an adverse effect on your life. You could find yourself without a job and find people avoiding you, and if you’re convicted and punished, you could even find future job opportunities and apartments limited. People may also begin to treat you as if you could become violent, which is a problem in general but especially if the charges stemmed from an isolated incident like rowdy behavior that got out of hand, especially if you were intoxicated.

This doesn’t mean that domestic abuse is more excusable if you were drunk; it’s not. But it does mean that you could develop a reputation that is not quite right because people will wonder if you’ll be abusive again, and that reputation will follow you if you’re convicted because you’ll have to list the conviction on applications.

In Wisconsin, domestic abuse applies to incidents between spouses and ex-spouses, household partners, and significant others. It can apply to physical violence, of course, but also to behavior like intimidation. If you became verbally belligerent when drunk, that could lead to charges even if you didn’t physically touch the other person.

Because there is such an emphasis now on punishing abusive behavior, you could face consequences outside of the legal system, too. Your employer may not want their company associated with your behavior, and other people may become wary of you. If you are convicted, the consequences are even worse. Not only can jail time be a possibility, but you could also face non-renewal of apartment leases, loss of the right to possess firearms, and an inability to move forward because that conviction can hold you back in so many aspects of daily life.

If you’ve been accused of domestic abuse after a night when behavior just got out of hand, call Eisenberg Law Offices at 608-256-8356. You need legal assistance to help prevent the effects of those charges from taking over your life.