Divorce Involving Domestic Violence in Pennsylvania

How Domestic Violence Changes the Divorce Process

A domestic violence allegation does not replace your divorce case. It runs alongside it, and the two interact constantly from the day a petition is filed.

If you are the spouse seeking protection, the abuse becomes evidence a Pennsylvania court can weigh when your custody case is decided. If you are the spouse contesting the allegation, the outcome of your PFA hearing can follow you directly into that custody case, so how you handle it matters as much as how you handle the divorce itself.

Filing for Protection While Your Divorce Is Pending

You do not have to choose between filing for divorce and seeking a Protection from Abuse order. Pennsylvania’s Protection from Abuse Act lets a judge grant emergency relief, exclusive possession of the marital residence, and temporary custody arrangements long before your divorce is finalized.

When safety is the immediate concern, our PFA attorneys can help pursue emergency relief promptly, then coordinate it with the divorce, custody, and support claims your case will also need.

Our attorneys practice both family law and criminal defense from our Downtown Lancaster office, across the street from the Lancaster County Courthouse. That matters here because a PFA, a custody dispute, and a criminal charge can all grow out of the same incident, and you need one team that sees the whole picture.

How a Protection Order Can Affect Custody and Support

A Pennsylvania court can use a Protection from Abuse order to grant temporary custody or temporary visitation while your case is pending.^[1] In that proceeding, the court can restrict a defendant’s temporary custody or visitation rights when it makes specific findings concerning abuse of the children, a risk of abuse, or certain risks involving interference with custody. Depending on those findings, the court may prohibit unsupervised visitation or other custodial access while the protective order is in effect.

If the other parent has a legal duty to support you or your children, the order can temporarily require support,^[1] including certain mortgage, rent, health coverage, or unreimbursed medical costs. To keep that support in place, you generally need to file a separate support complaint within two weeks after the protection order is issued, or that part of the order becomes void.

These custody and support terms are interim safety measures. They hold the situation in place while the case moves forward, but they are not your final custody order. That decision follows a full custody case, built around the factors below.

What Pennsylvania Courts Weigh in Custody When Abuse Is Alleged

Pennsylvania’s custody statute gives substantial weighted consideration to safety when a judge decides any form of custody.^[2] Among the safety factors receiving that substantial weighted consideration are:

• Which parent is more likely to keep the child safe, day to day.
• Present and past abuse by a parent or a member of that parent’s household, including a PFA where a court has already found abuse occurred.
• Any history of child abuse or involvement with protective services.
• Violent or assaultive behavior by either parent, whether or not it was directed at the child.

The law also protects the parent who left an abusive home. Housing instability, a job change, or a disrupted routine caused by fleeing abuse cannot be held against you in the custody analysis,^[2] as long as you did not pose a safety risk to the child yourself.

If You Are Contesting a Domestic Violence Allegation

If you have been served with a PFA petition, Pennsylvania law generally requires your hearing to be held within ten business days after the petition is filed.^[3] You have the right to appear, present evidence, call witnesses, and cross-examine the person who filed against you.

The plaintiff has to prove abuse occurred by a preponderance of the evidence, meaning it is more likely than not.^[3] A final order can last up to three years, and it can become part of the record your custody case relies on later, so contesting it correctly the first time carries real weight.

A finding of abuse does not automatically decide your custody case. Long-term custody is determined separately, under the full best-interest factors,^[2] not by the protection order alone.

Common Complications These Cases Raise

• Assets moved, hidden, or drained around the time a PFA is filed, which your divorce attorney needs to track from day one.
• Overlapping criminal charges tied to the same incident, which can affect both your PFA hearing and your custody case.
• Firearms relinquishment ordered under the PFA, which can affect a parent’s job if that job requires carrying a weapon.
• Making sure the PFA’s temporary custody terms and the divorce case’s eventual custody order do not end up contradicting each other.

One point worth knowing either way: Pennsylvania divides marital property without regard to marital misconduct,^[4] so abuse itself is not an equitable-distribution factor. Conduct that affects the marital estate, such as hiding, transferring, or dissipating assets, can still matter independently, and the PFA can give you possession of the home while your case is pending.

How Lancaster Law Group Can Help

You need a firm that fights for your safety and gives you a clear, honest picture of what comes next. Attorney Shawnee S. Burton is a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, a credential held by a small number of family law attorneys statewide, and our founder, Joseph P. McMahon, brings trial experience from both sides of the courtroom.

Because we practice family law and criminal defense together, we represent clients facing a PFA, a custody dispute, and a related criminal charge all at once, without handing you off between firms. We will explain each step in plain language and tell you honestly where your case stands.

We bring that same team approach to Pennsylvania divorce cases complicated by domestic violence, so your safety strategy and your divorce strategy are never working against each other.

Call Lancaster Law Group at 717-358-0600 or schedule a consultation at our Downtown Lancaster office to talk through your situation and your next step.