What should I request for a domestic violence settlement?

Question by Kelli: What should I request for a domestic violence settlement?
I have been with my fiance for over three years now. We were both in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction and we met in a recovery self help meeting.
We got engaged December of last year, and got an apartment together in June of this year. During the past year we had been working with lawyers on his mother’s wrongful death suit. It was a very tiring, emotional process. We got the first offers about six months ago, right before we moved into our townhouse. After some figure exchanging on the lawyer’s parts they reached $ 1.5 mil and my fiance and his sister agreed. After paying the lawyers they each received just over half a mil.

When moving my fiance had me throw away a lot of my things. Old TV’s, furniture, ect. He had all but stopped attending self-help meetings and started getting pretty unreasonable. We signed a year lease in June and he moved out in September the week he received the settlement. We had been trying to work things out and I slowly started bringing my daughter back around him. We were out shopping the other night and he thought I slammed my door when we got to a restaurant. He demanded we get back in the car and he would bring me back to my car. I let my daughter in the car and I got in the front seat. My daughter had not finished buckling her seat belt yet when he whipped the car out of the parking spot in reverse, then popped it into drive. Her booster seat flipped and she flew from behind the passenger seat to behind the driver’s seat, where her head bounced off the window like a damn basketball. I screamed to stop the car and he punched me. Closed fisted punched, like I was a dude. Needless to say I called the police right from his car and made him drive right there. He told the officer he was there because he punched me, however at his arraignment the next morning he plead not guilty… Because he is not willing to live without his firearm…

His lawyer called me today and asked what I wanted to settle. I would like to know what other people think I should ask for. I was thinking anger management, mandatory self-help meetings, and the terms of our lease met. However this happened two days before Thanksgiving, so instead of going to his parents as we had planned, me and my daughter had mac & cheese and watched tv. It was a really sad day, and now I can’t help but think how much sadder x-mas will be now that the gifts him and I had talked about with her are no longer an option. Would asking for some financial compensation be taking it too far?
I DIDN’T DECIDE TO SUE YOU JERK! HIS LAWYER CALLED ME AND ASKED ME WHAT IT WOULD TAKE TO MAKE THIS GO AWAY BECAUSE BRIAN WOULD LIKE HIS GUN BACK!
And thanks ladies!
or ladybug & truth I mean, 😛

The only reason why I threw the info about his settlement in there is because he made commitments with me with that money. I stuck through really hard times with this man and he bolted the second things got good for him? I just feel like I got a really raw deal all around here. If you don’t think so then feel free to say it, but don’t blast me with your condescending judgments!

Best answer:

Answer by ladybug
Get a lawyer and get him good, the big jerk will just drink the money away anyway. I’d rather see your kid have it.

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