Domestic violence injunctions, or restraining orders, are excellent tools available to those who truly need protection from other individuals. Unfortunately, injunctions are frequently abused in an effort to gain the upper hand in a divorce proceeding, a child custody proceeding or landlord/tenant issue. Citizens do not want to be on the receiving end of a temporary or permanent injunction. This gives the petitioner (the person filing the injunction against a citizen) an inordinate amount of power over their life. They can prevent a citizen from going to certain places or having contact with them or other individuals. In the event they accuse the person with the injunction of violating the injunction, they are subject to a criminal prosecution and criminal sanction.
The injunction is a civil remedy and is used to prohibit another person or entity from doing something, going somewhere or communicating with someone. In family law, a domestic violence injunction is when one person alleges they are in imminent fear of another person with which whom they have had a domestic relationship. A domestic violence injunction precludes contact between the person enjoined to the petitioner, the person being enjoined from coming within 100 feet from the car of the petitioner, the person being enjoined within 500 feet of the home of the petitioner. Clearly, the standard injunction severely curtails the movement of the person being enjoined.
The domestic violence injunction has teeth; the violating injunction could result in jail time. First, the judge who issued the injunction could hold the violator in contempt of court and sentence him or her to 180 days in jail. Additionally, the State Attorney could seek to prosecute the violator of domestic violence injunction and seek a punishment of up to 365 days in the county jail.
Call my office for a free initial consultation for domestic violence issues at 407-843-9411. Convenient payment plans and credit card payments are accepted.