Florida Domestic Violence Defenses: Mutual Combat

This is one of my favorite defenses to discuss, and it is rarely handled correctly.

First, we've already discussed Florida's "Primary Aggressor" law which means that if law enforcement is called on a domestic, someone is usually going to jail. However, this leads to a second point which is often poorly understood and not effectively taught in law enforcement seminars. Or there is a policy decision (read politics) to lock one of them up and let the court system sort it out. Either way, someone who engaged in lawful conduct - mutual combat - is arrested and now needs a criminal defense attorney licensed in Florida.

Mutual combat assumes both parties are engaged in wrongful behavior. This differs from self defense because someone engaged in self defense is, by the very nature of self defense, not guilty of the charge because they are the actual victim who is not required by law to suffer a battery.

In the domestic violence context, what often happens is that one party will make a statement such as "the other person hit/pushed/slapped/bruised/grabbed me" and leaves out the part about their mutual combat with that person. Legally, if two people want to fight each other - without causing serious injury - it is lawful. In other words, both parties decided to give consent to engage in a) intentional touching, that was b) harmful or offensive.

This type of defense may be a trial defense or in some fact patterns, actually subject to a motion to dismiss.

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