Welcome to Brainstuff from how Stuff Works dot com where smart Happens. Hi, I'm Marshall Brain with today's question, what is a restraining order and how do you get one? In the past few days, the words restraining order have popped into the news several times. In one story, actor Edward Furlong, most recently of green Hornet fame, was taken to jail for violating a restraining order. A college basketball player is facing possible jail time for violating his restraining order.
As well his crime, he put a post on Facebook. You wouldn't think that a Facebook post would be something that could get you in jail, but in the world of restraining orders, it can actually be a serious offense. So let's look at how these things work. Imagine that you're in a relationship with someone. It might be a romantic relationship and employment relationship, a rental relationship, a neighborly relationship, or whatever, but the two of you have a falling out.
In most cases, the two parties go their separate ways and that's the end of it. But sometimes, for whatever reason, one of the parties will not let go or will start a campaign of harassment. It is in these situations that restraining orders come into play. Sometimes there's not even a relationship involved. A celebrity might feel threatened by the behavior of a member of the paparazzi, or a public official might be worried about someone who begins stocking him.
Restraining orders can also be helpful in these situations. Involving strangers, a restraining order is a legal document, usually issued by a court that tells one person to stay away from another person or entity. The orders come in different flavors, depending on the court and the situation. A restraining order might specify a specific distance that one person must keep away from another, or a restraining order might specify that all forms of contact or forbidden. This is how a
Facebook post can actually become a crime. A restraining order might also go so far as to require the restrained party to take a class or surrender guns and ammunition. The most common reason for getting a restraining order involves some sort of domestic dispute. It's thought that more than a million restraining orders of this type are issued in the United States each year. A person who has been the recipient of domestic violence or some other unwelcome behavior
files a request for a restraining order. Typically, this is done by going to the court house, filling out forms and paying a filing fee. What happens next varies from state to state. The filer may be issued what's called a temporary restraining order and then a hearing day to set in court so that a judge can decide if a permanent restraining order is appropriate. A permanent restraining order will have a term like one or two years. In
North Carolina, where I live. The two most common types of restraining orders are the domestic violence protective order and the civil no contact order. The former applies to family and relationship situations, in the latter to most other issues. So for example, if you and your spouse getting an argument and your spouse starts beating you, a domestic violence protective order would protect you from further violence. On the other hand, if a coworker is intimidating you or assaults you,
a civil no contact order may be appropriate. Once you have a restraining order, the question of enforcement becomes important. A restraining order is enforced by calling the authorities when the order is violated. States vary in their response, but in many cases, a person who intentionally violates a restraining order will be arrested, as seen in the case of
the rogue Facebook post. Even seemingly small violations an email or a Facebook message, or send anything similar to that can have serious repercussions when they violate a court issued restraining order. Therefore, if you are the one being restrained by a restraining order, the only rational response is to make sure you follow the court's instructions in that order to the letter. Be sure to check out our new
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