What If Someone Violates Their Restraining Order?

Restraining or protective orders are usually civil law matters. However, if you violate a restraining order, you will face criminal charges and penalties, including fines and imprisonment. Whether the prosecutor will charge you with a felony or misdemeanor will be dependent on your criminal history and the specific facts of your situation. For instance, you may be charged with a felony if you have prior criminal convictions or if you injure someone when you violate the protected order.

Penalties for Violating a Restraining Order in California

Violating a protective order is usually a misdemeanor and is punishable by a fine not exceeding $1,000 and jail time of up to one year. But this offense will be considered a wobbler if the violation involved injury to another person or if it’s your second time violating a restraining order. Wobblers are offenses that prosecutors can charge as a felony or misdemeanor. If the prosecutor decides to charge you with a felony, the penalties include a fine of up to $10,000 and three years in prison.

Take note that interested parties will not know if there is a restraining order against you because they’re civil matters and will not be included in background checks. However, if you violate a protective order, it will show up in background checks. It’s also possible to avoid jail time even if you get convicted of violating a restraining order. Depending on the circumstances of your violation, your Santa Barbara criminal defense attorney may help push for supervised probation instead of jail time.

If you are eligible for supervised probation, you will need to pay restitution to people you’ve harmed, regularly meet with your probation officer, do community service, and go to counseling. If you violate any of the terms and conditions of your probation, such as by violating another protective order, you will face jail time.

Common Defenses to Restraining Order Violations

Our Santa Barbara criminal defense attorney may raise any of the following defenses, depending on your situation:

• You didn’t know you had a restraining order against you, so how could you have violated something you had no knowledge of?
• You must know that you have a restraining order against you for you to intentionally violate it. Attorneys usually raise this defense in cases where the restrained individual ran into the protected individual by accident or chance in a social event or public area where both individuals have a right to access.
• The restraining order against you isn’t lawful. Your attorney could argue that a judge should not have issued the protective order because there’s no legal basis for it.

Seek Legal Guidance From an Experienced Santa Barbara Criminal Defense Attorney Today

If you’ve been charged with violating a restraining order, get in touch with our Santa Barbara criminal defense attorney as soon as you can. Your attorney will evaluate the facts of the case against you and help you understand your legal rights and options. Call Bamieh & De Smeth at 805-643-5555 or complete our online form to arrange your free consultation with our Santa Barbara criminal defense attorney.