Domestic Violence Lawyer in Paris

What does French law punish as domestic violence?

French law has no single offence called domestic violence. It takes the ordinary offence of intentional violence and makes it more serious when the perpetrator is the victim's spouse, cohabiting partner or civil partner under a PACS, the French civil union. Since the law of 3 August 2018, that aggravation also applies to a former spouse or partner, and it applies whether or not the couple ever lived together, provided the violence is linked to the relationship that existed between them (article 132-80 of the Penal Code).

The consequence is immediate. Violence that caused no incapacity for work at all is a délit (criminal offence) punished by three years of imprisonment and a 45,000 euro fine when committed within the couple (article 222-13). The same penalty applies when the incapacity, the ITT in French practice, is eight days or less. Above eight days, the offence falls under article 222-12 and carries five years of imprisonment and a 75,000 euro fine. Each article adds further steps when other circumstances combine: a weapon, premeditation, a minor who witnessed the facts. Under article 222-12, two aggravating circumstances raise the ceiling to seven years and 100,000 euros, and three to ten years and 150,000 euros.

The number of days of incapacity is therefore not a detail. It is set by a doctor, in Paris usually at the forensic medical unit, and it decides which article applies, which court hears the case and which sentence is on the table. It is also one of the first points the defence examines. The prosecution has six years to bring proceedings for these offences (article 8 of the Code of Criminal Procedure), so a complaint can follow long after a separation.

What happens after a domestic violence arrest in Paris?

Domestic violence is the subject of a deliberately firm prosecution policy in Paris and the surrounding courts. A complaint, or simply a call from a neighbour, usually leads to garde à vue (police custody) at the local police station, where the person is questioned about the facts and about the history of the relationship. Custody can last 24 hours and be extended once to 48 hours. Your rights must be notified in a language you understand, with an interpreter where necessary (article 63-1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure), and a foreign national can have their consular authorities informed (article 63-2). The firm assists clients in custody directly in English; how to appoint the firm from a distance is explained on the police custody lawyer page.

When custody ends, the prosecutor decides the next step. In practice, for domestic violence with an incapacity for work, repeated facts or a previous record, the person is very often taken before the prosecutor at the tribunal judiciaire and then sent to comparution immédiate (immediate trial), sometimes the same day. The court can judge immediately or, at the defence's request, adjourn the case to allow preparation. Either way, it rules on the interim measures: release under judicial supervision or pretrial detention. Less serious files are dealt with by a summons to a later hearing or by an alternative to prosecution.

Judicial supervision is where these cases bite first. Under article 138 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the judge can prohibit any contact with the victim, ban the person from certain places and order them to live outside the couple's home, a measure the law says should be taken when violence is likely to be repeated and the victim asks for it. Overnight, the accused loses their home and sometimes contact with their children. Breaching those obligations leads to revocation of the supervision and can lead to detention (article 141-2). The firm intervenes at that hearing to obtain the least restrictive set of conditions and, later, to have them adjusted or lifted.

How is a defence built when you are accused of domestic violence?

These cases are often decided on one word against another, in a climate of separation, jealousy or conflict over the children. A serious defence does not consist in denying everything. It consists in reconstructing the facts with precision: the chronology of the evening, the messages exchanged before and after, the witnesses who were actually present, the injuries described and their consistency with the account given, the context of an ongoing divorce or custody dispute. The firm has seen files in which a complaint was filed a few days before a hearing before the family court judge; that context is not an excuse, but it is a fact the criminal court needs to know.

The medical certificate deserves particular attention. The number of days of incapacity determines the applicable article, and a certificate drawn up by a general practitioner without a forensic examination can be discussed. Where an English-speaking client has given statements in custody without a proper interpreter, the regularity of the procedure itself becomes a defence argument. What you say in the first hours matters most, which is why the firm prepares each police interview during custody rather than discovering the file at the hearing.

A withdrawal of the complaint changes nothing on its own: the prosecutor can continue on the basis of the investigation. Nor does contacting the complainant to sort things out, which usually breaches the no-contact order and worsens the position. The firm handles the contact with the other side, where a contact is appropriate, and prepares the hearing before the criminal court, with the possibility of a judicial investigation or an appeal where the facts justify it.

Victims: how do you obtain protection and compensation?

For a victim, two paths run in parallel and neither depends on the other. The criminal path begins with a complaint, filed at any police station or sent directly to the prosecutor, and with a medical examination at the urgences médico-judiciaires, the forensic medical unit, which records the injuries and sets the number of days of incapacity. In Paris, the police can refer you to that unit as soon as the complaint is registered. Keep every message, photograph and name of a witness: in these cases the file is built from fragments, and the fragments that are collected early carry the most weight.

The civil path is the ordonnance de protection (protection order), issued by the juge aux affaires familiales, the family court judge, when violence within the couple, even without cohabitation, exposes the victim or the children to danger (article 515-9 of the Civil Code). No criminal complaint is required. The judge must rule within a maximum of six days from the date the hearing is fixed (article 515-11). The order can prohibit the violent partner from contacting you or approaching certain places, forbid them from holding a weapon, allocate the family home to you, organise parental authority and allow you to conceal your address. Breaching the order is a separate offence punished by three years of imprisonment and a 45,000 euro fine (article 227-4-2 of the Penal Code). The firm prepares the application, in English with you and in French before the court, and represents you at the hearing.

At the criminal trial, you can join the proceedings as partie civile (civil party) and claim compensation for each head of loss: physical injury, psychological harm, medical costs, loss of earnings. The French mechanisms for victims, from filing a complaint to state compensation, are described in French on the firm's page on victims and civil parties. In immediate danger, call 17. The 3919 helpline, Violences Femmes Info, is available to victims free of charge.

Is psychological abuse within a couple a criminal offence?

Yes. Harassment of a spouse, civil partner or cohabiting partner by repeated words or conduct that degrade their living conditions and affect their physical or mental health is a distinct offence under article 222-33-2-1 of the Penal Code. It is punished by three years of imprisonment and a 45,000 euro fine where the incapacity for work is eight days or less, or nil, by five years and 75,000 euros where it exceeds eight days or where a minor was present and witnessed the facts, and by ten years and 150,000 euros where the harassment led the victim to suicide or attempted suicide. The same penalties apply to a former partner.

These cases rest on patterns rather than a single incident: messages, financial control, isolation from friends and family, medical records showing the deterioration of health. For the defence, the question is often whether the conflict of a separation has been recast as harassment; for the victim, it is how to document a pattern that unfolded in private. In both situations the firm works from the written record, which in these files is usually abundant.