Restraining Orders

Although I cannot speak to the specific laws in your state, a respondent may not be prevented from bringing a lawsuit against a person who has a restraining order even if it is a stay-away order or a no-contact order. If a respondent were prohibited from suing the petitioner during the whole term of the order, this might be considered by the courts to be a serious interference on his/her Constitutional right to “due process of law.” However, while the parties are in the courthouse, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the abuser can disregard the protection order. For example, although the parties will be near each other in the courtroom and in the waiting area of the courtroom, it doesn’t mean that the abuser can begin threatening the petitioner or abusing him/her. For example, if the abuser approaches the victim in the waiting room and threatens him/her or follows the victim in the parking lot, etc., the abuser may still be violating the order. Sometimes, a victim may even consider informing the court officers that s/he has an order against the other party and ask for help in staying safe - there may be a private waiting area to wait in or the officer may be willing to escort the victim to his/her car, for example.

ADD THIS ONLY IF SHE SAYS THE LAWSUIT IS FRIVOLOUS OR SHE FEELS HE IS SUING HER To ABUSE HER: [ Now, if you are asking about a situation where the respondent is bringing frivolous court petitions, there is a concept known as “litigation abuse.” It is commonly interpreted as when the abuser files repeated court cases that have no merit – now that an abuser can no longer abuse the victim in other ways, s/he uses “litigation abuse” to have power and control over the victim by keeping him/her in court. Unfortunately, this is often hard to fix since it is hard to limit someone’s right to file in court. A person who is facing litigation abuse may want to try proving to the judge that the cases the opposing party (the abuser) keeps bringing are without merit (not based on a good reason), and are filed instead to harass the other person. In some courts, s/he may then be able to get some type of order from the judge that will help to limit the litigation abuse or its effects. Some of the things the judge may order are:

• Order the party bringing the excessive motions to pay the attorney’s fees and costs of the other party.
• Order the party who files meaningless motions to reimburse lost wages and other expenses of the other party
• Excuse the at-risk parent from appearing at hearings or permit the at-risk parent to appear by telephone.
• Order that no motions and petitions can be filed or that no court appearances may be scheduled without the judge’s prior approval.
• Deny requests for excessive or unnecessary delay.

Another possibility that may prevent an abuser from continuing to take a victim to court is that if the abuser loses the case (basically if the judge rules in the victim’s favor), the victim may be able to file a motion to ask the judge to order the abuser to pay the victim’s attorney’s fees. Sometimes, this sort of financial penalty can be enough of an incentive to discourage multiple lawsuits. Hopefully a lawyer can walk you through the process of filing such a motion to the judge to make these sort of requests if this is something you want to do.]

We link to free and paid lawyers on our Finding a Lawyer page [HYPERLINK] to get specific advice about your situation.