Restraining Orders

You can file for an ex parte gun violence restraining order and/or a gun violence order issued after notice and a hearing if the respondent poses a significant danger of causing personal injury to himself/herself or another person by having in his/her custody or control, owning, purchasing, possessing, or receiving a firearm or ammunition. To file for a gun violence restraining order, you must be the respondent’s immediate family member, the respondent’s employer, a co-worker of the respondent, an employee/teacher at the respondent’s secondary or post-secondary school, or a law enforcement officer.¹ You are considered an immediate family member if you are the respondent’s:

• spouse (including a common law spouse if established in a state that recognizes common law marriage);
• domestic partner;
• parent;
• child;
• second-degree relative (such as an uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, grandparent, grandchild, etc.); or
• household member who regularly lives, or within the last six months regularly lived, in the respondent’s household.²

Only a law enforcement officer may file for a temporary emergency gun violence restraining order.³ If you believe such an order is needed on an emergency basis, you may contact the police and request that an officer file for it even when the courts are closed.

¹ Cal. Penal Code §§ 18150(a)(1); 18170(a)(1)
² Cal. Penal Code § 422.4(b)(3)
³ Cal. Penal Code § 18125