Protective Orders

Salt Lake City lawyer helping restore your liberty

A protective order can be a major problem that hinders your liberties. Avoiding the person who filed the order may not be enough. Other restrictions may be included, such as the denial of the right to carry a gun. Attorney Harold Stone helps you get protective orders dismissed and restores your civil rights.

How a protective order can be filed against you

A person 16 years of age or older can file a protective order against you. That person must claim to be a victim of your abuse or other act of domestic violence, and must have a domestic relationship to you such as:

  • Living or having lived with you
  • Having a child (born or unborn) with you
  • Being related to you by blood or marriage

Protective orders are often filed by former spouses who believe that their exes pose a threat to them or their children. But sometimes they are used as an alternative to divorce actions.

The restrictions you face under a protective order

Make no contact with the person

Most protective orders instruct you not to harm your accuser, the children or any other people who live with the accuser. You are also usually ordered to make no contact and stay away from your accuser. It is risky to even be seen near the person's home, work, school or vehicle. You could simply be in the wrong place at the wrong time, minding your own business, and find yourself in violation of the protective order.

Loss of property and child visitation rights

Sometimes spouses or ex-spouses attempt to use protective orders as a way around the divorce process. When this happens, you can:

  • Be forced out of your home
  • Lose your car
  • Be denied custody of your children
  • Forced to pay support — child, spousal, or both

These issues belong in divorce court, but in Utah they can be put in motion by a protective order.

Maintain your rights and get help fighting a protective order

Protective orders can violate your civil liberties and put you at risk of criminal charges. For help getting a protective order dismissed, call attorney Harold Stone in Salt Lake City at 1-801-913-7055, or contact the firm online to schedule your initial consultation.