Going to Court for Your Harassment Restraining Order

To get a no contact order, harassment restraining order or order for protection, you first need to file a petition requesting the restraining order. Filing a petition requires you complete the necessary forms which can differ between juristictions, and submit them to your local courthouse.

Often a temporary order is granted immediately, sometimes it is given a court date. When the temporary restraining order is served, you can bet they will fight it or file one on you, then a court date is usually set.

Going to court for a harassment restraining order is a civil matter and does not necessarily require a restraining order attorney. We sat in court and watched several harassment restraining order trials and many did not have attorneys.

However, if you are not comfortable in court, or have little experience, and you suspect your harasser will have an attorney, I'd suggest getting one. Things in court can move very quickly, experienced attorneys can make motions and say things that you may not understand due to unfamiliarity or simply due to the legalese with which they sometimes speak.

Ultimately, you have one shot at this, if it's rejected it will be very hard to get one later, so in my opinion, you are vastly better off putting your best foot forward at the trial and having an experienced harassment restraining order attorney with you.

When talking to lawyers, ask them how many restraining orders they have done, listen to their advice and comments and see if it sounds insightful, ask them quick questions and listen to their reactions as you tell your story to check their attentiveness and how quickly they are thinking as you are speaking. Make sure you feel good about the attorney you choose. They don't come cheaply, you want to make sure you have one you get along with and like.

What To Expect At The Hearing

Anything...

If you both have an attorney, they will likely meet before court and start talking about possible out of court resolutions. Let them talk, even if you want to go to court, ya never know what might happen. They will also often get a meeting with the judge before the hearing, the judge will possibly recommend mediation or some other possibly resolution. All of this will happen without you, this is all behind the scenes stuff, periodically your attorney will pop out and tell you whats going on, or ask for an opinion or answer on some given subject.

If you have no attorney, or one of you doesn't, none of this will happen, you just sit and wait. Any court I have personally been in has two sessions, morning and afternoon, you are given one and you just wait your turn, it could be a case of sitting there for a few hours waiting for your few minutes with the judge.

Once in court the attorneys do their thing, if they are being used. You will be placed on the stand to testify, be cross examined by opposing counsel, as will your adversary. The judge then gives his verdict.

If there are no attorneys a good judge will guide the two parties through the case asking questions and listening to testimony. Kind of like most of the TV court shows are like.

If you are new to court it can seem intimidating but just let the system do it's thing.