Restraining Orders

The following is a list of things that a judge can include in a protection order. Some of these may not apply to you if you do not live with the stalker or have children in common with the stalker.

The law says that a judge can issue “any” emergency ex parte order that the judge believes is necessary to protect you from immediate and present danger of domestic abuse, stalking, or harassment.¹ Specifically, in an emergency ex parte order of protection, the judge can order that the abuser:

1. have no contact with you - in person, by phone, mail, electronically, or by any other means;
2. stop abusing, sexually assaulting, harassing, stalking, or threatening you – and stop “otherwise interfering” with you;
3. not use, attempt to use, or threaten to use physical force against you that would reasonably be expected to cause bodily injury;
4. stop doing anything that would make you afraid that the abuser is going to physically injure you, a relative, or a household member;
5. stay away from your home and allow the abuser to remove any clothing and other personal items from the home with a police officer there;
6. allow you to get your clothing and personal items from the home with a police officer present if you will not be returning to live in the home that you shared with the abuser;
7. move out of the home if you live together and take no action to change utilities or telephone service;
8. stop seeing your children if s/he has visitation rights or make the visits supervised; however, the order will generally not create an order of child custody, visitation, or child support if one does not already exist;
9. stay away from, have no contact with, and be prohibited from taking, giving away, harassing, threatening, or attacking any animal owned or kept by you, the defendant, or a child living in the either of your homes – and the judge can give you sole possession of the animal;
10. turn in all firearms and dangerous weapons; and
11. do anything else the judge thinks is necessary for your protection.²

A final protective order can do the following:

• include everything listed above in numbers 1 through 11;
• order that your cell phone provider or public utility provider transfer to you the billing responsibility for, and rights to, any wireless telephone numbers for you or your children and any household utility accounts;
• order that the abuser attend domestic abuse counseling or treatment; (Note: Although you cannot be ordered to go to counseling or treatment, if you choose to do so, the judge can order the abuser to pay for some/all of the costs if the judge thinks it is appropriate);
• order the abuser to use a 24-hour, real-time, GPS monitoring device; and
• pay your attorney’s fees and court costs.³

All ex parte and final orders will include the following additional warnings regardless of what the judge includes in each order:

• “The defendant must avoid the residence of the petitioner or any premises temporarily occupied by the petitioner;
• The defendant must avoid contact that harasses or intimidates the petitioner. Contact includes, but is not limited to, contact at the home, work, or school of the petitioner, public places, in person, by phone, in writing, by electronic communication or device, or in any other manner;
• The defendant shall not impersonate or adopt the personification of the petitioner by pretending to be the petitioner, ordering items, posting information or making inquiries, or publishing photographs of the petitioner, by use of social media, or by use of computer, telephone, texting, emailing, or by use of any electronic means;
• The defendant must refrain from removing, hiding, damaging, harming, mistreating, or disposing of a household pet;
• The defendant must allow the petitioner or a family member or household member of the petitioner acting on his or her behalf to retrieve a household pet;
• The defendant must avoid contacting the petitioner or causing any person other than an attorney for the petitioner or law enforcement officer to contact the petitioner unless the petitioner consents in writing.”⁴

¹ 22 O.S. § 60.3(A)
² See Emergency Order of Protection on the Oklahoma Courts website
³ 22 O.S. §§ 60.4, 60.17, 60.2(C)(1),(E); see also Final Order of Protection on the Oklahoma Courts website
⁴ 22 O.S. § 60.11(7)-(12)