Restraining Orders

There is often a fine line in the law between freedom of speech (the First Amendment) and harassing, illegal speech. There was a court ruling recently in the news because the highest court in Maine ruled that a man who posted threats against an ex on his own Facebook page violated an order of protection even though she wasn’t his Facebook friend. However, those posts were very clearly threats. You mentioned that in your case, the respondent posted pictures but you can’t see the comments. Assuming that no threats were made, I am not sure if a judge would consider someone posting pictures on their own Facebook page of a protected party to be harassing. It may depend on the specific acts that were prohibited in the protection order and other factors. For example, if the respondent posted nude pictures of the protected party that may be different than if the respondent posted a family picture at a barbeque.

If someone isn’t sure if a social media post would violation a protection order, it’s often helpful to take a screenshot of it as evidence just in case it’s needed.

In your situation, you may want to reach out to a lawyer for advice, especially if the person who alerted you to it is able to take screenshots to show to the lawyer. We have legal referrals on our Finding a Lawyer page. In addition, we have some basic information about what someone can do if s/he believes an order has been violated. [hyperlink]