When someone is arrested for domestic violence in South Carolina, the case moves through booking, a bond hearing, and often a set of release conditions, and the ease with which these charges get filed is something the Greg McCollum Complete Legal Defense Team sees often. Below, Greg McCollum answers three common questions about what happens after an arrest, whether bail can be denied, and why domestic violence charges are so easy to bring in the first place.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens after someone is arrested for domestic violence in South Carolina?
They’re arrested, they’re taken from the scene, they’re taken to jail, they’re processed. In other words, they’re fingerprinted, the photos are taken, they’re booked into the jail, and they’re booked in awaiting a bond hearing on a basic domestic violence case. A person is going to go to a bond hearing the next day. Many times these things happen in the evening, but within say 12 hours or something like that, they’re going to go in front of a judge.
The judge is going to set bond, and the person is going to be released. On just a basic domestic violence case, they’re going to get bond, they’re getting out, but sometimes they come out with conditions such as a no contact order and the inability to go back to their own house.
That’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to get booked, you’re going to be charged, you go in front of a judge, bond will be set, you post bond and get out, and then the big concern then is what conditions have been imposed.
If someone is charged with domestic violence in South Carolina, can bail be denied?
We do a lot of domestic violence cases. It’s amazing how many good people who are married or in a relationship get into an argument, and one or both of them gets arrested. If a person is charged with domestic violence, there are so many degrees of it. What most everyone’s charged with, bail is honestly just automatic.
They’re going to get bail set. They don’t need a lawyer at the bond hearing for the purpose of bail, maybe conditions. There are more serious forms of domestic violence that are basically almost equivalent to attempted murder, and in those situations bail might be denied, but that’s not what most people are charged with.
Why is it so easy to get arrested for domestic violence in South Carolina?
We’ve done a lot of those. The thing about it is it happens so often to people. As a prosecutor, I handled probably 50 or 60 or more domestic violence cases. It’s hard to remember how many were prosecuted as a defense attorney, and then also with the Complete Legal Defense Team, so many are handled each year that the firm has probably done over a hundred of those cases.
Most of those cases have a really good outcome because it’s so easy to get charged with that. Ultimately, most people represented for domestic violence are not even guilty.
Domestic violence charges in South Carolina can move quickly, from arrest to booking to a bond hearing, often within hours, and the conditions that follow can affect where someone can live and who they can contact. With close to 30 years of experience and a background as a former prosecutor, Greg McCollum has seen these cases from both sides of the courtroom, and the Complete Legal Defense Team works to help clients understand their bond conditions and next steps in these situations.
If you have questions about domestic violence charges in South Carolina, call the Greg McCollum Complete Legal Defense Team at (843) 626-5480. Consultations are confidential.
