Reply to Fighting a Restraining Order

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[quote=Anonymous]Legally, even if the OP drove by the house 290348390823908 times it still does NOT warrant a restraining order. Driving by someone's house alone, no matter how often, is not illegal nor harassing.

In Washington, D.C., domestic violence is divided into three categories:  intimate partner violence, intrafamily violence, and interpersonal violence, which are explained in detail below.  "Domestic violence" is when one of the following people commits or threatens to commit any crime against you:*

someone you are or were married to, in a domestic partnership with, or in a romantic, dating, or sexual relationship with (“intimate partner violence” )
someone related to you by blood, adoption, legal custody, marriage, or domestic partnership (i.e., your brother or your father-in-law ) (“intrafamily violence”)
someone you have a child in common with -- this can be (“intrafamily violence”) and/or (“intimate partner violence” )
someone who share(d) a home with (i.e., a roommate) (“interpersonal violence”)
someone who is/ was in an intimate relationship with the same person that you are/ were in an intimate relationship with (e.g., you are dating Jane and Jane's ex-husband assaults you)(“interpersonal violence”).**
Note:  If you are a victim of stalking, sexual assault, or sexual abuse, you can file for a civil protection order against the offender even if you do not fall into one of these above categories.***

There are two types of civil protection orders in Washington, D.C.

Temporary (ex parte) Protection Orders
A temporary protection order can be issued the day that you file your petition without the abuser being present in court - (this is what is meant by an ex parte order).  The judge can give you this temporary order if the judge believes that the safety or welfare of you or your household member is in immediate danger from the abuser.*

The first temporary protection order that you get can last up to 14 days.  Once you return to court, the judge can extend the temporary protection order for additional 14 day periods (or for a longer period if both parties consent) until the final court hearing or trial is completed.*

Civil Protection Orders
A final protection order can be issued by a judge after one of the following happens:

there is a court hearing where you and the abuser both appear and present evidence and testimony to the judge, or
there is a court hearing where only you appear -- the abuser fails to appear even though you can prove he was properly served with notice of the court date, or
in court, the abuser consents to the protection order being issued.
In option 1 or 2, above, the judge will only issue the final protection order if s/he has "good cause" to believe that the abuser committed or threatened to commit a criminal offense against you, your animal, or any animal in your household.**  For option 3, this is not a requirement.

Civil law vs Criminal Law

Civil Law 
In a civil domestic violence action, you are asking the court to protect you from the person abusing you. You are not asking the court to send that person to jail for committing a crime. However, if the abuser violates the civil court order, he may be sent to jail for the violation. In a civil case, you are the person bringing the case against the abuser and (in most circumstances), you have the right to withdraw (drop) the case if you want to.  The protective orders we talk about are under the civil law system.

Criminal Law
The criminal law system handles all cases that involve violations of criminal law such as harassment, assault, murder, theft, etc. A criminal complaint involves your abuser being charged with a crime.  In a criminal case, the prosecutor (also called the district attorney) is the one who has control over whether the case against the abuser continues or not.  It is the county/state who has brought the case against the abuser, not the victim. It is possible that if you do not want the case to continue (if you do not want to “press charges”), the prosecutor might decide to drop the criminal charges but this is not necessarily true.  The prosecutor can also continue to prosecute the abuser against your wishes and could even issue a subpoena (a court order) to force you to testify at the trial.

I would have done a simple google search instead of coming on DCUM to get bashed by bitter wives [/quote]

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