Legal Information: New Hampshire

Restraining Orders

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Updated: 
December 9, 2022

How do I withdraw or extend my protective order?

If you want to withdraw your order, you would file a request for withdrawal. Only a judge can withdraw or cancel an order.

If you want a final order to last longer, you may go back to court and ask a judge to extend your order by filing a request for an extension. You should go in before your first order expires, or you may have to start all over. After the expiration of the first order, the judge can extend your order if there is “good cause” to do so for one more year and from then on, each extension may be for up to five years. The abuser can file an objection to the extension of the order and then the judge would hold a hearing to decide whether or not to extend the order, which you will have to attend.1

1 N.H. Rev. Stat. § 173-B:5(VI)

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