Protective Order (Restraining Order)

A court order telling one person to stop contacting or coming near another - enforceable by police, and valid across state lines.

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What it means

A protective order is a civil court order restricting what one person may do in relation to another: typically prohibiting contact, requiring them to stay away from a home, workplace or school, and sometimes requiring them to leave a shared residence. Terminology varies by state - protective order, restraining order, order of protection, injunction against harassment - and the differences are more than cosmetic, because states attach different grounds and different consequences to each type.

Most states operate two stages. An emergency or temporary order can often be obtained quickly, sometimes the same day and without the other person present, on the applicant's account alone. It lasts only until a hearing, at which both sides appear and the court decides whether to issue a longer order. The second hearing is the one that decides the outcome, and it is the one where evidence matters.

Two consequences are routinely underestimated. First, breaching a protective order is generally a criminal offense in its own right, separate from whatever the original conduct was - which is what gives the order practical force. Second, a qualifying order can trigger a federal firearms prohibition on the person restrained. That is federal law operating automatically on top of the state order, not something the state judge has to add.

These orders are also civil rather than criminal proceedings, which means the applicant does not need a prosecutor and does not need the police to have charged anyone. A person can seek one whether or not any criminal case exists.

Where this comes from

When people hire a lawyer for this

The hearing is the point at which help matters most, because temporary orders are comparatively easy to obtain and final ones are decided on evidence with the other side present and often represented. Domestic violence legal services and legal aid programs handle these routinely and frequently at no cost, and many courts have an advocate available on site. If there is a parallel custody, divorce or criminal case, the orders interact in ways that are difficult to manage separately - that is the situation in which advice is worth most.

Worried about the cost? A lawyer can be hired for one part of a case only (limited-scope representation), may be paid from what a claim recovers (contingency fee), or may be free through a pro bono program or legal aid; a court can also waive its own filing fees.

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Related terms

Other entries in the same area of law, each written from the same primary sources.

• AdoptionThe court order that makes a child legally the son or daughter of someone other than the birth parents - the kinds of adoption, whose consent is required, how the birth parents' rights end, the home study and the hearing, and what the order changes about inheritance, records and the child's name.
• Annulment (Void and Voidable Marriage)A court judgment declaring that a marriage was never valid, as distinct from a divorce that ends a valid one - the difference between a void and a voidable marriage, the grounds each state recognizes, who may bring the case, and what an annulment does to property, support and children.
• Child SupportMoney one parent pays the other toward a child's living costs, set in most cases by a state formula rather than by negotiation.
• Common-Law MarriageA marriage formed without a license or ceremony by living together as spouses and holding yourselves out as married - which states still allow it, what has to be proved, why every state recognizes one validly formed elsewhere, and what it means for property, support and inheritance when the relationship ends.
• Dividing Retirement Accounts in Divorce (QDRO)How pensions, 401(k) plans and IRAs are divided at divorce without tax or penalty - what a qualified domestic relations order is and why a divorce decree alone is not enough, the difference between a defined-benefit and a defined-contribution split, the plans that need a different order, and the mistakes that cost a former spouse the share the decree awarded.
• Establishing PaternityThe legal step that makes a man a child's father in law - and signing the hospital form is one of two routes, not a formality.
• Grandparent and Third-Party VisitationWhen a court can order that a child spend time with a grandparent, step-parent or other non-parent over a parent's objection - the constitutional limit set by the Supreme Court, the circumstances in which state statutes allow a petition, the special weight a fit parent's decision receives, and what a petitioner must prove.
• Grounds for DivorceThe legal basis a divorce is granted on - and in every state today at least one basis requires proving no wrongdoing by anyone.
• Guardian ad Litem and Custody EvaluatorThe two neutrals a court most often appoints in a contested custody case - what a guardian ad litem does and does not do, how it differs from a child's attorney and from a custody evaluator, who pays, what they may see, and how their reports are used at trial.
• Guardianship of a MinorA court order giving an adult who is not the parent legal authority over a child's care, or over the child's property, without ending the parents' rights - how it differs from custody and adoption, who can be appointed, what the parents keep, and how it ends.
• Legal and Physical CustodyTwo different things the word "custody" covers: who makes major decisions for a child, and where the child lives.
• Legal SeparationA court status in which spouses live apart with binding orders on support, property and children, while remaining married.
• Marital Property DivisionHow a court splits what a couple owns - and "equitable" means fair in that state's judgment, which is not the same as half.
• Modifying a Custody or Support OrderChanging an existing family court order - which usually requires proving something has changed, and never happens by the parents' agreement alone.
• Parenting Plan and VisitationThe written schedule and decision-making rules for a child after separation - and the document courts increasingly require rather than invite.
• Prenuptial AgreementA contract made before marriage about property and support - enforceable in every state, and set aside more often than most people expect.
• Relocating With a ChildMoving a child away from the other parent - the family law dispute most likely to require the court's permission before the move, not after.
• Spousal Support (Alimony)Payments from one former spouse to the other - discretionary in most states, and taxed differently for instruments made after 2018.
• Termination of Parental RightsThe court order that permanently ends the legal relationship between a parent and child - the grounds a state must prove, the heightened standard of proof and right to counsel, the difference between voluntary relinquishment and an involuntary petition, and what the order does and does not end.

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