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Legal Information: West Virginia

Statutes: West Virginia

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Updated: 
July 23, 2024

48-27-503. Permissive provisions in protective order

The terms of a protective order may include:

(1) Granting possession to the petitioner of the residence or household jointly resided in at the time the abuse occurred;

(2) Ordering the respondent to refrain from entering or being present in the immediate environs of the residence of the petitioner;

(3) Awarding temporary custody of or establishing temporary visitation rights with regard to minor children named in the order;

(4) Establishing terms of temporary visitation with regard to the minor children named in the order including, but not limited to, requiring third party supervision of visitations if necessary to protect the petitioner and/or the minor children;

(5) Ordering the noncustodial parent to pay to the caretaker parent a sum for temporary support and maintenance of the petitioner and children, if any;

(6) Ordering the respondent to pay to the petitioner a sum for temporary support and maintenance of the petitioner, where appropriate;

(7) Ordering the respondent to refrain from entering the school, business or place of employment of the petitioner or household or family members for the purpose of violating the protective order;

(8) Ordering the respondent to participate in an intervention program for perpetrators;

(9) Ordering the respondent to refrain from contacting, telephoning, communicating, harassing or verbally abusing the petitioner;

(10) Providing for either party to obtain personal property or other items from a location, including granting temporary possession of motor vehicles owned by either or both of the parties, and providing for the safety of the parties while this occurs, including ordering a law-enforcement officer to accompany one or both of the parties;

(11) Ordering the respondent to reimburse the petitioner or other person for any expenses incurred as a result of the domestic violence, including, but not limited to, medical expenses, transportation and shelter;

(12) Ordering the petitioner and respondent to refrain from transferring, conveying, alienating, encumbering or otherwise dealing with property which could otherwise be subject to the jurisdiction of the court or another court in an action for divorce or support, partition or in any other action affecting their interests in property;

(13) Awarding the petitioner the exclusive care, possession, or control of any animal owned, possessed, leased, kept or held by either the petitioner or the respondent or a minor child residing in the residence or household of either the petitioner or the respondent and prohibiting the respondent from taking, concealing, molesting, physically injuring, killing or otherwise disposing of the animal and limiting or precluding contact by the respondent with the animal; and

(14) Ordering any other relief the court deems necessary to protect the physical safety of petitioner or those persons for whom a petition may be filed as provided in subdivision (2), section three hundred five of this article.