Depending on the seriousness of the matter, our advice is to get an attorney involved as early as possible, as frequently an attorney can help you achieve the results that you want. 
A good attorney can keep you from making concessions that would hurt your case if you can not amicably settle, prevent critical evidence from getting “lost”, witnesses from [...]

“Family violence” is a term that includes many different forms of physical or psychological abuse or neglect. It can be experienced by adults or children in a family.
Many forms of family violence are crimes, including:
-physical abuse (such as hitting, punching, kicking, burning, cutting, stabbing, forcibly confining or shooting);
-sexual abuse (such as any unwanted sexual touching [...]