Restraining Orders

A judge can consider excluding the abuser from the home and allow you to stay in the home (grant you “exclusive possession”) if the home is:

• jointly owned or leased by you and the abuser;
• owned or leased by you; or
• owned or leased by the abuser and s/he has an obligation to support you or to support your child.¹

If you are asking that the abuser be excluded as part of a temporary ex parte protection order, you must prove all of the following through your affidavit and testimony:

• you currently live in the residence or you have lived there within the 30 days before you filed the application;
• the abuser has committed family violence against you or a member of the household within the 30 days before you filed the application; and
• there is a clear and present danger that the abuser is likely to commit family violence against you or a member of the household again.²

Note: If you are asking for exclusion as part of a temporary ex parte order, the judge can postpone the hearing until the end of the same day in order to call the respondent and give him/her the opportunity to be present in court when the court resumes the hearing.²

¹ Tex. Fam. Code § 85.021(2)
² Tex. Fam. Code § 83.006