No. 2025-CA-1194-ME
Warren Circuit Court
Kentucky Court of Appeals
Opinion by Chief Judge Thompson
Date Rendered: January 23, 2026
Question Presented: Whether “the potential fear created in the children by the repeated visits to the doctor and hospital” is sufficient to satisfy the “fear of serious injury” element set out in KRS 403.720(2).
During the parties’ divorce, Mother failed to comply with an order governing her supervised visitation, including engaging in a series of trespass incidents that resulted in criminal charges. Before her visitation was limited, Mother took the children to the hospital without medical necessity more than twenty times in a thirty-day period. Father obtained emergency temporary sole custody and sought a DVO against Mother on behalf of their shared children. After an evidentiary hearing, the trial court took judicial notice of Mother’s arrests and the underlying dissolution action and granted the DVO based on the children’s fear of repeated hospital visits.
Mother appealed, arguing that there was insufficient evidence of domestic violence and abuse as defined in KRS 403.720(2). The Court of Appeals agreed, concluding that “the potential fear created in the children by the repeated visits to the doctor and hospital” was not sufficient to satisfy the fear-of-serious-injury element set out in KRS 403.720(2).
The Court of Appeals vacated the DVO, emphasizing that while there was ample evidence of Mother’s chaotic actions, which violated custody and visitation orders and amounted to one or more criminal acts, the clear language of the statute and prior case law constrained its review.
Digested by Elizabeth M. Howell