Restraining Orders

In general, when a protection order says “no contact,” the respondent cannot have any sort of contact with the victim - this includes contact through a third party. So, for example, a respondent cannot ask someone to call the petitioner on his/her behalf. A respondent can be arrested for any sort of contact, even if it is not harassing or threatening. For example, if a respondent under a no contact order sends a text or call to say “I love you” or “I miss you,” s/he could be arrested for that since it violates the no contact order. Similarly, if there is a stay away provision and the respondent doesn’t honor that, s/he can be arrested. The fact that there may be a another person present, such as a therapist, priest, doctor, etc., does not change the fact that respondent could be violating the order by having contact or by not staying away - the respondent can still be subject to arrest. However, since I cannot speak to your specific situation or what your client’s order says, he may want to show the order to a lawyer to be sure that the information that I am providing applies to his specific situation - it may depend on the actual protections included in his order.

Sometimes, if a petitioner wants to go to counseling with the respondent, s/he can file in court to ask the judge to modify the order to allow for contact during counseling. However, I do not know if the respondent would have the same right to file in court to ask the judge to modify the order. Your client may want to ask a lawyer about this if this is something he wants to do. Here is a link for lawyers, free and paid:LINK

And here is some more information about orders of protection in STATE if it’s helpful: LINK