The Florida domestic violence statute, found at 71.248, applies to family or household members. The law defines a family or household member as:
Spouses, former spouses, persons related by blood or marriage, persons who are presently residing together as if a family or who have resided together in the past as if a family, and persons who are parents of a child in common regardless of whether they have been married. With the exception of persons who have a child in common, the family or household members must be currently residing or have in the past resided together in the same single dwelling unit.
The question, then, is whether gay couples living together are “persons who are presently residing together as if a family. Florida courts have said yes. Specifically, in Peterman v. Meeker, 855 So. 2d 690 (Fla. 2d DCA 2003), the Court held that “the statute does not exclude those persons who otherwise meet the requirements for a domestic violence injunction but seek protection from a person of the same sex.”
Attorneys should be careful to spot a domestic violence issue from a potential client. The typical person will come into the law office and say, “I need protection from my roommate.” Same-sex domestic violence issues can be hard to verbalize: sometimes the client will even slip a note across the table that says, “Not my roommate.”
Because the domestic violence statute does apply to same-sex couples, domestic partners that are breaking up can sometimes use the law improperly. Though heterosexual couples can do the same. It is tragic how parties sometimes use self help to get out of relationship when one partner doesn’t want to leave.
For example, I’ve seen one case where two people were partners for 13 years. They broke up. The owner of the house filed for eviction. When the non-owner got served with eviction, he got hysterical. The house-owner video taped his ex-partner on his on iphone and got a restraining order under the domestic violence statute. A restraining order was issued against the non-owner and the non-owner was shut out of the house. The non-owner was allowed about 20 minutes to get his things and get out, making the eviction action moot.
