What Standard Applies to Renew a Restraining Order?
A civil restraining order is often used to prevent criminal conduct such as battery, criminal threats, stalking or just disturbing the peace. It is not issued in a criminal court, but it has criminal undertones that suggest if the restraining order is violated, not only would a criminal case follow for violation of the order (under Penal Code § 166(a)), but also for the conduct, if prohibited under the Penal Code. For this reason, we often have clients who are the subject of a restraining order and who call us to better understand the limits of their freedom imposed by the order and whether the order is automatically renewed upon its expiration and/or what the protected party must show a judge to renew the order.