Restraining Orders

WRITTEN TO AN ABUSER WHO IS EMAILING TO ASK ABOUT A SITUATION WHERE THE VICTIM IS CONTACTING HIM/HER. IF YOU AREN’T SURE WHO IS WRITING, YOU WILL NEED TO CHANGE THE LANGUAGE IN SECOND AND THIRD PARAGRAPHS: Usually, unless the respondent also has an order against the petitioner, the petitioner cannot legally violate his/her own order of protection. All of the stuff that the order says - like no contact, staying out of the home, etc - generally applies to the respondent, not the petitioner. Protection orders are designed to prohibit a respondent from doing certain things, not the petitioner. There are some states where the petitioner could be charged with aiding and abetting a violation of a protection order but I don’t know if there is any similar law in your state. You may want to ask a lawyer in your state to be sure if there is or isn’t a law against a petitioner contacting a respondent. Here is a link to find free, low cost and paid lawyers in your state. [HYPERLINK]

[CHANGE THIS IF IT’S NOT THE ABUSER WRITING TO US: If you are the respondent, you may want to get advice from a lawyer about what you should do about the petitioner contacting you. You may want to ask a lawyer, for example, if you should bring this behavior to the judge’s attention, for example, and if there is a way to do so without putting yourself at risk of being found to have violated the order.]

In general, whether or not the petitioner contacted the respondent, the respondent could be the one in violation of the order if s/he responds to the contact or tries to contact him/her back. As I mentioned above, in a civil case (not criminal), a respondent may want to contact a lawyer to ask how to approach this – whether s/he should raise the issue with the judge in court on the next court date or if there are no upcoming court dates, whether or not s/he should try to get back into court to alert the judge if s/he is afraid that the petitioner will continue this behavior and put the respondent at risk of violating the order. Here is a link to our civil restraining order pages [HYPERLINK] for more information.

[ONLY INCLUDE THIS IF YOU ARE NOT SURE IF IT’S CRIMINAL OR CIVIL - MOST WRITERS WILL BE WRITING ABOUT CIVIL ORDERS: If it is a criminal case where the order was issued, a criminal defendant may want to talk to a criminal defense lawyer to ask what to do – again, maybe the lawyer might file some type of motion in court to alert the judge and have the judge warn the petitioner.]