Walk It Through: The Ex
A pattern of conduct that seriously alarms, an abuse prevention order with no filing fee, and a message after it.
After a breakup, the partner a nurse used to live with keeps calling and messaging at all hours and waits outside the hospital after shifts.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One nurse and one former partner. Coercive control in detail, temporary custody, and compensation for moving costs are not worked through here.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Criminal harassmentWillfully and maliciously engaging in a knowing pattern of conduct over time, directed at a specific person, that seriously alarms them and would cause a reasonable person substantial emotional distress.
- Abuse prevention orderAn order against abuse between family or household members, which can require refraining from abuse and contact, vacating the household, and paying for losses the abuse caused.
- Coercive controlA pattern of threatening, isolating, controlling or monitoring behavior that causes reasonable fear of harm or a reduced sense of safety or autonomy; it is one form of abuse an abuse prevention order reaches.