Contempt

NOTE TO STUDENT: THIS ADDRESSES VIOLATIONS OF BOTH CIVIL AND CRIMINAL RO’S - IF YOU KNOW FOR SURE WHICH ONE THE PERSON HAS, YOU CAN DELETE THE PARAGRAPHS THAT ONLY TALK ABOUT CRIMINAL RO

Generally, a person can be arrested/ prosecuted for violating a civil or criminal restraining order - both for the crime s/he committed when violating the order (threats, stalking, etc.) and for criminal contempt of court for disobeying the court order. I can’t say how your state handles the criminal violation of an order, regarding whether they charge the person for both the crime and contempt or perhaps for only one or the other. Generally the arrest and prosecution may come from the report to the police that the abuser violated the civil or criminal order.

If the abuser violated a civil restraining order, the other party generally has the option of returning to court to file for civil contempt instead of, or in addition to, reporting it to the police. When a person files for contempt, s/he is asking a court to acknowledge that he violated the court order and asking that the court take steps to try to force him to follow the order and/or punish him for the violation. In many states, a civil judge can extend a protection order based on a violation, or even sentence someone to jail for violating a civil order - I don’t know how your state handles this.

When filing for contempt for violation of a civil order, a person may have the option of filing for contempt on his/her own, or with the help of a lawyer. If someone wants to file on his/her own, s/he may go to the clerk of court (that’s the courthouse official in charge of records) and ask for the forms s/he will need to fill out to file for contempt. Usually, to file for contempt, a person may go to the courthouse that granted the original order but there may be exceptions to this. You may want to consult with an attorney to see how to go about filing for contempt and what the possible outcomes may be. Here is a link to free and paid legal assistance:LINK

If the other party violated a criminal restraining order, I don’t know if there is another way to handle that aside from reporting it to the police. In other words, I don’t know if a person can go to court himself/herself to file for contempt if the police refuse to arrest – if this is relevant to your situation, perhaps the district attorney who prosecuted the original case may be able to give you information on how to proceed.