The Perils of Violating a Protective or Restraining Order

A protective order is a tool used by both criminal and civil courts to protect purported victims of domestic violence. Protective orders come in many shapes and sizes and many can have wide-ranging consequences for those that violate them. Depending on how they are applied, protective orders can become mind-bogglingly complex and put you at significant risk of multiple felony charges before you know what happened. To understand protective orders, it’s important to get some basic definitions out of the way first.

Protective orders typically come in three levels. Each successive level has more stringent restrictions places on the individual. To understand these different requirements, we need to know some details about what kind of protective order we’re talking about. Broadly, there are criminal and civil protective orders. Broken down by these classes, we get:

Criminal Protective Orders

These are orders requested by prosecutors during a criminal domestic violence case.

• No Contact Orders

  Just like it sounds. No contact with the other party, period. This can be requested regardless of objections by an alleged victim or witness.

• Harassment No Contact Orders

  Same as above but is issued in Harassment Cases

Civil Protective Orders

These are protective orders that are requested by an alleged victim. Be aware that these orders can be issued if the requestor feels that they are in imminent danger of any of these events occurring.

• • Domestic Violence Protective Order

  • Stalking Protection Order

  • Anti-harassment Protective Order

  • Sexual Assault Protective Order

  • Vulnerable Adult Protective Order (abandonment, financial exploitation)

  • Extreme Risk Protective Order (firearm specific)

  • Restraining Order (issued in conjunction to a family law case)

Are you aware that you can violate some of these protective orders by a simple text message? Any social media platform can serve as a trap to entice you to contact the other party in violation of the protective order. With great representation, you will know what you can and can’t do. This puts you in the best position for the best outcome possible, even if it isn’t what you initially imagined.

If it isn’t apparent by the sheer number of types of protective orders above, the fact is that defending yourself against unfair charges is not an easy task. To defend yourself properly, you need an expert domestic abuse defense attorney. Without expert help, you could face multiple protective orders, both civil and criminal. Violating any of these orders could cause you to violate other orders, resulting in immediate incarceration, elevated bail costs and being barred from any contact with the other party for years.

Make sure you have the best representation that you can manage. The costs for being unprepared can end up being measured in years of difficulties.