Today, February 15, 2022, Charlotte lawyers at Arnold & Smith, PLLC received a favorable ruling by the North Carolina Court of Appeals in an appeal from the trial court's issuance of a domestic violence protective order in the matter of Walker-Snyder v Snyder.

Attorneys Matt Arnold and Ashley Crowder represented Appellant who alleged, among other things, that the court did not have competent evidence to support its order that imposed a domestic violence protective order against Appellant.

These are cases of "first impression".  In these kinds of cases, a great deal of deference is often placed on the trial court's factual findings as the trial court heard from the witnesses and viewed the evidence.  Lawyers Matt Arnold and Ashley Crowder argued that, in spite of the trial court's findings, the facts of the case proved that no "act of domestic violence" had a occurred, as required by statute, to support the court's ruling.

The trial court based its findings on testimony from the Appellee that text messages she received from Appellant “placed [her] in fear of continued harassment that rises to such a level as to inflict substantial emotional distress.”  Matt Arnold and Ashley Crowder argured to the Court of Appeals that there was no testimony in the record that met the statutory requirement of harassment: “[k]nowing conduct . . . directed at a specific person that torments, terrorizes, or terrifies that person and that serves no legitimate purpose.”

The best Appellee could do was state that the text messages were "...really hurtful, and I just didn’t know what . . . to do with all of this. . . . [I]t feels that I’m always anxious and upset to get these.”

Not even close to "torments, terrorizes, or terrifies"!

Keep up the good work, Arnold & Smith, PLLC!