FAQ: What Is A Protection Order?

In many cases, a victim is granted a protection order from the court that keeps the defendant or other parties away from the victim. However, this is not the only place where you can gain a protection order against another individual. If you are seeking a protection order, you are operating within the realm of civil law. Though protection orders may seem like an action taken in a criminal court, they actually are civil cases brought about by a petitioner against a respondent.

There are different types of protection orders, temporary, permanent, and emergency protection orders. A temporary restraining order is granted by a judge or magistrate after you have demonstrated to the court that there is an imminent danger that the respondent, if not restrained from seeing you, will continue to harass, stalk, or harm you. When someone gets a temporary restraining order, they do not need to provide any evidence of domestic violence, just to provide an account to the judge who will either grant or deny the order. After you receive a temporary restraining order, two weeks later you must reappear during a permanent orders hearing.

A permanent orders hearing is where evidence is provided to a judge and the respondent is given a chance to fight against the protection order. At the conclusion of the hearing, the judge can make one of a few different decisions. First, if the respondent fails to appear or the judge finds that a permanent restraining order will aid in keeping the respondent from harassing, stalking, or harming you, then the judge will grant a permanent restraining order. If the respondent does come to court and provides evidence that the protection order is not necessary, or that the original account was untrue, the judge can choose to not continue the protection order and the respondent is allowed to have contact with the petitioner again.

The third option is that the judge can continue the protection order in cases where legal counsel is solicited to help either party in their case, for parties to find legal counsel, or for other circumstances that require a resetting of the permanent order hearing. The final type of protection order is an emergency protection order, granted by police officers when there are reasonable grounds that the victim could suffer from continued domestic abuse.

In some cases, a complaint may not need to be issued for a protection order to be granted. If in certain criminal cases, the judge determines that a protection order is necessary to protect the victim from sustaining any further abuse, a protection order may be granted against a defendant in that case.

Typically, protection orders require the restrained party to stay a certain distance (100 feet, 100 yards, etc.) away from the petitioning party at all times, and that the restrained person must not be present at a home, workplace, school, or other frequently utilized places of the petitioner. In cases where children are involved, protection orders often require the restrained party to stay away from childcare facilities and keep them from having access to see their children.

In certain cases, parties will make up after the events that caused the protection order in the first place and will choose to be in contact with one another. Although it may seem that both parties are happy and civil together, this is still a violation of a protection order and can have consequences such as criminal charges for the restrained party. Because of this, it is very important for the petitioning party to think the protection order through before it is granted by a court since it can be difficult to reverse in the future.

Another major consequence of having a protection order against you is that you are required to give up possession of any firearms you may own or possess, and you are further unable to purchase firearms in the future. Because of these consequences, hiring an experienced attorney to assist you with filing for, or fighting against a protection order is imperative to helping your side in the case.

If you have a temporary protection order filed against you, or you are seeking a permanent protection order, it is important to understand the long, difficult process of overturning a protection order. If you have any doubts about having a protection order or believe that you might want the order overturned in the future, it is better to never have a protection order in the first place.

If you have questions about filing a protection order or fighting against a permanent protection order, it is important that you have a relentless attorney on your side. If you are in need of an attorney for your protection order case, call Krizman Law today at 303.529.2677.