What is Civil Harassment?
Before moving towards the Civil Harassment Restraining Orders, let’s define what Civil Harassment is. Civil Harassment is an abuse, threat of abuse, sexual assault or serious harassment by a person with whom you have not dated or someone who is not in your close relationship. Additionally, it is also considered as a n abuse if that person is from a same family but that does not include in domestic violence. For instance, if abuse is from uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, or cousin then it is considered as civil harassment not a domestic violence.
What is a Civil Harassment Restraining order?
Civil Harassment Retraining Order is a court order that protects people from violence, serious harassment, or threats of violence.
Conditions for Civil Harassment Restraining Order:
There are two conditions for civil harassment restraining order.
- If a person has abused or threatened to abuse, sexually assaulted or have harassed you then you are eligible to apply for civil harassment restraining order.
- When you are scared, seriously annoyed or harassed then you can apply for civil harassment order.
Conditions for the person you want to restrain:
The person you want to restrain for civil harassment restraining order might be among the fo0llowing.
- That person can be your spouse or former spouse
- A person with whom you dated at any time
- That can also be your close relative including parent, child, brother, sister, grandmother, grandfather, in-laws etc.
If it is your close your relative then you must see whether domestic violence restraining order is best for your situation.
Civil Harassment Restraining order allows you to ask to refrain from:
- You neighbor
- Your roommate
- Any of your friends
- Any family member or any close relative
- Any other person who is not closely related to you.
What can a restraining order do?
A restraining order is a court order that orders the restraining person to not contact you or any other family member. It does not allow the restraining person to go even near to you or anyone who lives with you. Moreover, the restrained person stays away from you, your work, or your children’s school. It also restricts that person to have a gun.
In California, as soon as the court issues the restraining order, it goes into a statewide computer system. That system allows law enforcement agencies to see that there is a restraining order in place.
What is Ex Parte?
If a party requests the court to act for restraining order without any notice to the opposing party then it is said to be Ex Parte.
The opposite party does not get noticed about the restraining order nor does it get an opportunity to come to explain their point of view about the issue.
However, it is often unusual to request the court to act on Ex Parte basis.
Generally, the court notifies all the parties before issuing any orders to permit all parties to show their position before the court through some pieces of evidence.
In case a person request for ex parte, the court may or may not grant the request for a restraining order. However, if the request for an ex parte is granted the other party is allowed to request a hearing to present further information.
The kind of restriction and the circumstances may differ from court to court and from judge to judge. Hence, one must consult with an attorney. To consult an attorney is important because he/she would be familiar with the court where the lawsuit is filled.
Enforcement of the restraining order:
Police cannot enforce the restraining order which is filled in a lawsuit. Civil Harassment restraining order is a civil matter and it must be enforced through civil proceedings. However, police is allowed to come out atb the time of any violation of a restraining order but they cannot force the parties to obey the orders. They are also not allowed to arrest anyone. Police comes out to help the party. They are allowed to arrest any person only if he/she violates the criminal statute.
If you call the police and complain about then theft of your property or anything else that violates the restraining order you may have to file a report otherwise police may not take any action.
As mentioned above, police can’t force anyone rather can take the actions in case of violation of the restraining order. For instance, if your spouse tried to threaten you with any object then in such a case you can report to the police and they can take the action against your spouse as crime is being committed by attempting to assault the family member.
On contrary, if your spouse sold the car by going against the restraining order then police can’t take any action against it as in such case the crime is not committed, and you’ll be invited to make the report which will be used for the further proceeding of the case. As restraining order, is there to protect the legal rights.
At last, the restraining order is used to protect the legal rights of the citizen but it can’t be used to claim any monetary damage done by the other party. And, if that’s the case; then the separate case has to file in claim the damages done.
Temporary Restraining order:
In case of high risk and on the demand of the petitioner, the temporary restraining order can also be issued by the attorney. This will restrain the suspect to stay from the petitioner and don’t try to engage with him or any person who lives with them.
One can file for the restraining order by himself, in most cases in order to protect, however, it may vary from country to country. It’s advised to hire a professional and experienced attorney. Who has the ability to put the evidence in the most efficient way and to protect the petitioner from any emotional decision that can harm him later or reduce the chances of getting the restraining order.
Consequences of violating the Retraining order and recommendation:
Restraining order, once issued may cause problems against the person as his name will be entered in the central system of the government which is used for tracking purposes. In case, the person will apply for any government job or for any other job which requires him to have the clean track record and if the restraining order is issued against him then this can create the big problem for him or often have to leave that opportunity untouched
It’ll also refrain the person from carrying the weapon as carrying the weapon increases the risk of violation and the harm to the party which applied for the restraining order. In case of violation, the violator can face legal action from paying the high penalty charges or ending up being in Jail for couple of months based on the severity of the violation and other factors. The punishment varies from country to country or state to state and sometimes combination of both jail sentence and fine needed to be beared by the violator,
Even for employers, it’s a negative signal and most will sideline the person whose criminal record shows that person was involved in such an activity where he had harassed or exploited the rights of others.
