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An important first step to decide if a civil harassment restraining order is available
or if another type of restraining order may be better,
is to look at the kind of relationship, if there is one,
between the person who wants protection and the person he or she wants protection from.
To make it easier, this video always calls the person who wants protection
"the protected person” and the person he or she wants protection from
“the restrained person” — even before any court case is filed.
The court may make a civil harassment restraining order if the Protected Person
and the Restrained Person do not know each other or are not too closely related.
For example, the Protected Person and the Restrained Person can be:
Strangers, acquaintances, or former friends
Neighbors or schoolmates
Roommates or a landlord and a tenant
A business owner or employee and a customer, or
Aunt or uncle and niece or nephew, cousins, or more distant relatives.
A civil harassment restraining order is not available if the Protected Person and the
Restrained Person have – or ever had – certain close relationships.
The court may not make a civil harassment restraining order
if the Protected Person and the Restrained Person are or were:
Spouses or registered domestic partners,
Parent and child, siblings, or grandparent and grandchild, or
Parents of the same child
The court also may not make a civil harassment restraining order
if the Protected Person and the Restrained Person have dated, been engaged,
or lived together as more than just friends or roommates
If the people have or had one of these close relationships, the Protected Person
should consider asking the court for a domestic violence restraining order,
which may give more protection, be less expensive, and be easier to get.
Other types of restraining orders may also be better if the Protected Person:
is 65 or older, or a dependent adult under age 65,
is an adult who enrolled in or applied to a private post-secondary education program,
or has been harassed or threatened at work.
For information about these types of restraining orders, go to
www.courts.ca.gov/selfhelp-abuse.htm
To make a civil harassment restraining order, the judge needs proof
that the Restrained Person did something that the law says is civil harassment.
In general, the Restrained Person must have committed:
Violence or a serious threat of violence
against the Protected Person
or a series of wrongful acts, like stalking,
that seriously bothered the Protected Person
and would seriously bother most people.
Many other situations that are bothersome do not amount to civil harassment.
The restraining order laws are very specific and complicated.
If possible, talk to a lawyer or your court’s self-help center to make sure you understand
what types of restraining orders may be available in your situation.