Walk It Through: The Order Of Protection
Abuse at home, a former partner who will not stop calling, and the department at the door.
After a husband shoves his wife against a wall and threatens worse, she wants him kept away.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One family in danger. Criminal domestic violence charges, firearms after an order, the shelter trespass rule, divorce and custody hearings 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.
- DwellingIn the self defense article, a building or conveyance of any kind with a roof, including an attached porch and a tent, designed to be occupied by people lodging there at night, temporary or permanent, mobile or immobile.
- MinorA person under the age of eighteen, which is what every reference to minors in the state's laws means, except in the laws on selling alcoholic beverages.
- Order of protectionA family court order protecting a household member from abuse, which may bar the respondent from abusing, contacting or approaching the petitioner, for a fixed time of not less than six months nor more than one year.
- Restraining orderA magistrates court order against a person engaged in harassment or stalking, lasting a fixed period of not less than one year and enforceable throughout the state.
- StalkingA pattern of words or conduct that serves no legitimate purpose and is meant to cause, and causes, a reasonable fear of death, assault, bodily injury, sexual contact, kidnapping or property damage to the person or family.
- Emergency protective custodyA law enforcement officer's taking of a child without the parents' consent, on probable cause that abuse or neglect puts the child in substantial and imminent danger with no time for a court order, or when a parent is arrested and no adult is left to care for the child.
- Law enforcement officerFor the resisting arrest article, any duly appointed or commissioned officer of the state, a county or a municipality.