Órdenes de Restricción

The judge in a protection order case has broad powers to issues order that are appropriate to your situation, including:

• ordering the abuser not to do the following against you or anyone else protected by the order: 
  • acts of domestic violence;
  • nonconsensual sexual conduct or nonconsensual sexual penetration;
  • sexual abuse;
  • stalking;
  • acts of abandonment, abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation against a vulnerable adult; and
  • unlawful harassment;
• ordering the abuser not to contact you or your children or your family members or members of your household;
• ordering the abuser to stay away from your home, even if you share it with the abuser), as well as your work, school, or from the school or day care of your child;
• prohibiting the abuser from coming within a certain distance from a specific location;
• making a temporary order about the living arrangement of your children, which can suspend visitation under a parenting plan if appropriate;
• ordering the abuser to participate in a domestic violence perpetrator treatment program or a sex offender treatment program;
• ordering the abuser to get a mental health or chemical dependency evaluation;
• ordering the abuser not to attend the same school as you or your child, if the order protects your child;
• requiring the abuser to pay the court costs and fees for your petition, including reasonable attorneys’ fees;
• ordering the abuser not to harass you, follow you, keep you under physical or electronic surveillance, cyberharass you, or use telephonic, audiovisual, or other electronic means to monitor the actions, location, or communication of you, your children, or members of your household;
• ordering the abuser to submit to electronic monitoring, unless the abuser is a minor;
• requiring the abuser to surrender his/her firearms and prohibiting the abuser from having access to any other firearms, if certain conditions are met (Note: You can read about the conditions that must be met for the judge to order the firearm removed on our Selected Washington Statutes page in section (1) of RCW 9.41.800);
• making an order regarding possession of your essential personal property, including a pet owned by you, your child, or the abuser;
• making an order regarding the use of a vehicle;
• restricting the abuser from engaging in abusive litigation, making harassing or libelous communications to third parties, or making false reports to investigative agencies;
• prohibiting the transfer of any assets you jointly own with the abuser and ordering other financial relief; or
• prohibiting the abuser from having or distributing intimate images of you, including requiring the abuser to take down and delete any such images.¹

The judge can only order the following protections in a full anti-harassment protection order, not in a temporary one:

• ordering the abuser to stay away from the home that you share with the abuser;
• making a temporary order about the living arrangements of your children, which can suspend visitation under a parenting plan if appropriate; and
• prohibiting the transfer of any assets you jointly own with the abuser and ordering other financial relief.² 

Whether or not a judge orders any or all of the above depends on the facts of your case.

Note: The judge cannot require that you, as the petitioner, get any services, including drug testing, victim support services, mental health assessments, or a psychological evaluation.³

¹ R.C.W. § 7.105.310(1)
² R.C.W. § 7.105.310(2)
³ R.C.W. § 7.105.310(4)(a)