Overview of Peace Order and Protective Order Proceedings
In everyday conversation, people use the term “restraining order” when referring to a court order prohibiting one individual from being around and/or attempting to contact another individual. While people may be familiar with the term “restraining order”, this is not technically the correct use of the term.
Under Maryland law, the correct terminology is “peace order” if the two people are acquaintances, neighbors, co-workers, friends, strangers, etc., and “protective order” if the two people are related by blood, living together, in a romantic relationship, current or former spouses, etc.
If you are seeking a peace or protective order against another person, you are referred to as the “Petitioner”. If another person is seeking a peace or protective order against you, you are referred to as the “Respondent”.
As a Petitioner, the process for obtaining a peace or protective order begins with you going to the courthouse to fill out a Petition for Peace/Protective Order. In this Petition, you must identify the other person, and you must describe your allegations of abuse, harassment, stalking, etc. by the other person. You can go to the courthouse for this purpose at any time during regular business hours without an appointment. (If you are seeking a peace or protective order outside of regular business hours, you can go to the Commissioner’s Office in your local jurisdiction.) After you fill out the Petition, you will then appear in front of the judge for a temporary peace/protective order hearing. The person you are seeking protection against is unlikely to be present at this temporary hearing unless they somehow know when you are going to the courthouse. At the temporary hearing, you will be placed under oath, and the judge or your attorney may ask you questions about the allegations you have written in your Petition. You will have to confirm under oath that your allegations are true. At this point, the judge will either grant or deny your request for a temporary peace or protective order. If the judge denies your request, then the judge will explain to you the reasoning for his/her denial. If the judge grants your request, then a temporary order will be issued, law enforcement will be instructed to serve the Respondent personally with a copy of the temporary order, and the court will set a final peace or protective order hearing approximately seven (7) days after the date of the temporary hearing.
At the final hearing, the Respondent has the option to consent to the entry of a final order. If the Respondent consents, then the Respondent is entitled to have the matter expunged from his/her record after the order expires. Final peace orders are typically for a duration of six (6) months, unless modified/extended. Final protective orders are typically for a duration of twelve (12) months, unless modified/extended. If the Respondent does not consent, then a trial takes place at the final hearing. At trial, the Petitioner has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that a prohibited act occurred and is likely to occur in the future.
Another significant difference between peace orders and protective orders is that peace order proceedings are focused on events that occurred within the thirty (30) days before you filed your Petition. For example, if a stranger punches you in the face outside of Wal Mart on September 1st, then you go to the courthouse for a peace order on October 20th, after having no contact with the stranger after the Wal Mart incident, then you will not be entitled to a peace order because you were punched in the face more than thirty (30) days prior the filing of your Petition. Protective order proceedings have a longer memory and events from more than thirty (30) days prior to your filing may play a role.
If you are involved in a peace or protective order matter, as the Petitioner or the Respondent, an experienced attorney can assist you. This blog would be 10+ pages long if I tried to include every piece of information or law relevant to these types of proceedings. The purpose of this blog is to give a general overview of peace orders and protective orders from a 30,000-foot perspective.