A criminal protective order is close to being a permanent restraining order and is available to domestic battery victims. When issued, it may last up to 5 years and upon expiration may be re-issued for another 5 years and another 5 years and so forth.
General Information:
- Violating A Protective Order In Los Angeles – Penal Code 273.6
- What Is A Criminal Protective Order In Los Angeles County?
- What Happens If You Violate a Criminal Protective Order?
When a criminal protective order is issued, the judge is basically forbidding a person, an intimate partner, from contacting, stalking, harassing, threatening, abusing, attacking, assaulting, telephoning his or her partner, children, or any other person specified in the protective order.
The Process of Obtaining a Protective Order
The first thing that must be filed by the victim of abuse is a temporary restraining order. The order is usually granted the same day and if the victim files ex parte then the other person does not have to be present.
The next step is for the other person to get served and then takes place the “order to show cause” hearing 21 days later. During this hearing, both parties are heard and depending on the testimonies and evidence presented, the judge then decide whether a criminal protective order should be issued. You need to understand the difference between a protective order and restraining order in domestic violence cases.
Protective Orders and Domestic Violence
Usually where I see criminal protective orders being issued by judges is in a domestic violence case. However, they're not limited to domestic violence cases.
Usually, if there's a victim of a crime and somebody did something to another person in a violent manner, that's going to trigger the prosecutors to want to put a criminal protective order in place.
Basically, what that is, is an order by a judge. They fill out paperwork for it telling the criminal defendant to stay away from the victim — typically it's at least 100 yards. Sometimes, they'll even make it a closer distance depending on the circumstances — where the people live; where the people work; where they go to school, and a lot of time this creates a huge problem if it's a husband and wife, because the husband and wife are now separated and cannot be near each other.
This is more and more a prevalent thing in Los Angeles County where we go to the arraignment and the judge issues a full stay-away order that's part of a protective order, and now the defendant can't go back into the house and that's a huge problem because they don't have anywhere else to live and maybe they have kids.
There are some things to try to get around this, like doing the domestic violence classes early, going to counseling and other things while you're waiting for your criminal case to come. So, you definitely want to hire an attorney right away and get a game plan together. Obviously, the game plan is going to be based on the circumstances and facts surrounding your case and exactly what happened.
How Do You Violate A Criminal Protective Order?
Again, this is not a cookie-cutter situation or a do-it-yourself project where you try to figure it and you just do the same thing every time in every case. You've got to develop a strategy based on the facts and circumstances surrounding what happened with you and your significant other if it's a domestic violence case.
If it's not a domestic violence case then there's other ways that it can be handled. But the bottom line is, if you violate a criminal protective order in Los Angeles, not only will you be in trouble with the court that issued it — potentially being taken into custody — you're also going to be charged with a new crime, because violating a criminal protective order or a restraining order is a crime and the prosecutors will definitely charge this.
So, the next question becomes, how do you actually violate a criminal protective order? There's a number of ways to do it, but one is that you come within 100 yards of a person when you've been ordered not to come within 100 yards. Sometimes people tell me, well but it was an accident. If it truly is an accident and you walk the other way when you see the person, you're not going to have a problem.
Other ways to violate a criminal protective order is by contacting the person. People do this all the time. They'll call the person, text the person, or they think they're smart and they'll send somebody else to contact the person. That would violate the criminal protective order just the same.
Another way to violate a criminal protective order is harassment. You start doing things to harass the other party. Then you're going to put yourself in a bad position. You're going to be looking at getting arrested. You're going to be looking at jail time.
These criminal protective orders usually last for the length of the probation and domestic violence cases. A lot of times I will see a ten year protective order go into place depending on the facts and circumstances of the case.
So, if you've got an issue with a criminal protective order, pick up the phone. We'll figure out how to deal with it. This is definitely something that needs to be dealt with when you're involved with a criminal case.
Hire a Criminal Defense Attorney in Los Angeles
in this type of situation, hiring a defense attorney is a smart move. As your advocate, we will make sure the judge hears your side of the story and strategize an effective defense on your behalf. Get in touch with the firm and we will set up a free meeting and discuss the process and your defense further in detail.
