Restraining Orders

Either you or the abuser may petition the court to change a term of your protective order.¹ To ask that it be changed, you will have to go to the clerk of court where you first got the order to file a petition to modify your order. The petition is shown on the West Virginia Courts website here.

If you have a 90-day order or a 180-day order and want to extend it for another 90 days, you have to submit a request in writing to the court where you got the order and it can be extended without another court hearing.² You would have to file a Request to Extend 90-Day or 180-Day Protective Order before your current order expires. Then, the clerk will send a notice of the extension to the respondent (abuser) by mail.³Note: The West Virginia Courts website has a notice with information about extending a protective order when the parties to the protective order are also parties to an action in family court - you can read that information here and you may be able to ask the clerk for clarification.

If you have a one-year order and want to extend it, the court can extend it for whatever period of time the court considers necessary to protect the physical safety of you or anyone protected by the order. You would have to prove that the abuser materially (significantly) violated the existing protective order or s/he significantly violated a protective order issued by the judge in your divorce case. The order can only be extended after a court hearing where the abuser has the right to be present.⁴

¹ W. Va. Code § 48-27-505(f)
² W. Va. Code § 48-27-505(a)
³ See Request to Extend 90-Day or 180-Day Protective Order; W. Va. Code § 48-27-505(d)
⁴ W. Va. Code § 48-27-505(c)