what to do if a restraining order is filed against you
Sometimes abusive people try to get 209A restraining orders confronting the people they have abused in order to become back at them. Judges know this. The judge may not give the abusive person a restraining order against you even if they asks for one. But sometimes abusive people are able to go protective orders against the people they driveling.
If yous effort to get a restraining order and the person who abused you lot also asks for one against you, the court may write upward "mutual restraining orders." This means that each of you lot has a restraining order against the other.
If a judge orders common restraining orders, the approximate has to write down the reasons why they are writing restraining orders against both of you. The judge also has to write downwards who the "primary aggressor" is. This means that the approximate has to decide which person is most probable to corruption the other. The judge needs to write this down and so that the police will know what to practise if at that place is a trouble. See Abuse Prevention Guidelines vi:07 (page 167).
If you get served with a 209A restraining club against you, take information technology seriously. Go to the hearing, no matter what anyone tells you lot. If yous don't go to the hearing, the judge may give the person who driveling y'all a restraining social club against y'all. You do not desire that to happen, for many reasons:
- The abusive person may prevarication near you or make up things you did so they tin get a criminal case filed against you.
- If the abusive person gets an order confronting you, it takes attending away from their ain abusive behavior. Information technology makes it seem like the domestic violence was your fault as much as information technology was their fault.
- Information technology is unsafe for yous. If yous each have protective orders against each other, the constabulary may non know what to do when there is a problem. You might have trouble getting the constabulary to arrest the abusive person for violating your society. This makes yous less safe.
- Information technology lets the abuser injure you by using the very organization that was ready up to protect y'all.
Go to court on the date of the hearing and tell the judge what really happened. Try to talk to an advocate or lawyer earlier the hearing to assistance you fix. Tell the judge:
- You are the victim of domestic violence. If you can, tell the judge about the history of how the other person has abused you, past injuries, medical records, police calls, etc. Bring police or medical reports, pictures, or witnesses if you lot can. If you don't have any of these things, tell the judge some details about what happened.
- Tell the Judge
- If you think the abusive person is only trying to go an order against you considering you lot left them, or considering you have an society out against them, or because they are trying to get custody, or because you have a new romantic partner, or considering their friends told them to, etc.
- If y'all never physically hurt or tried to physically injure the person who abused you lot.
- If yous never made the other person scared of existence physically hurt by y'all. or
- If yous never made the other person have sexual activity with you against their volition.
Before you go into the courtroom, read the statement ("affidavit")
that the person who abused you lot filled out when they got their restraining order confronting you lot. You tin become this affidavit from the file in the clerk'due south role. If there are statements in that affidavit that are not true, tell the estimate the truth.
The judge should only issue a mutual 209A restraining order (i that is against both of y'all) if they believe that y'all are each truly in danger from the other. If the judge does issue an order against both of you lot, they must write down the facts that fabricated them determine you lot are both in danger from each other. The judge'due south written report of these facts are chosen "findings." If the judge gives the person who abused you lot a protective order against you lot, ask for a written copy of the findings. Yous may want to show them to a lawyer or advocate and recall near filing an entreatment.
What do I do if the calumniating person files a criminal complaint against me?
Sometimes, abusive people try to "get revenge" by filing criminal charges against their victims. You should take this very seriously. If the other person files criminal charges against yous, y'all volition need a lawyer. If you cannot afford a lawyer, the courtroom should appoint i for yous if any jail fourth dimension is possible.
Tell your lawyer the history of domestic violence and that you lot are the truthful victim. Each District Attorney's office has dissimilar means of dealing with these "retaliatory" cases (cases where an abuser files criminal charges confronting their victim as a way of getting back at them). The Banana Commune Attorney may know the history of your case and may not believe the abuser'south story. The Banana DA might drop the charges and not go forward with a criminal case against yous. That is the all-time affair that tin can happen. But you cannot be sure the DA will drop the example. (Run across Criminal Complaints for more data well-nigh what happens in criminal cases)
Source: https://www.masslegalhelp.org/domestic-violence/abuser-takes-me-to-court
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