Do orders to refrain from, or stay away orders, really make any difference in domestic violence situations? Good question and the answer isn’t that reassuring.
Orders of protection are usually issued as the result of a family “situation,” most commonly domestic violence. There are two kinds of these orders. The refrain from order doesn’t prohibit any behavior that isn’t already illegal; and the stay away order, the more serious of the two, mandates the defendant stay away from the victim.
Along with ordering that the defendant stay away from a victim’s work, home, school or any other place in public, they are required to turn in any firearms. While a nice thought, this rarely happens in practice, and as a net result many women have been seriously harmed or killed by abusive men under a stay away order – as one man in jail was heard saying to a cellmate: “It’s just a piece of paper, man.”
Unfortunately, these orders are just a piece of paper and if a person doesn’t want to pay attention to it and doesn’t care about the consequences, it will likely result in trouble. If a person feels they have nothing to lose by violating either order, then being told they can’t do something or see someone won’t stop them.
In the case of custody and visitation issues, these orders tend to be used as weapons to get the other parent in hot water. Usually the reason behind these (at times) false accusations is if the person has an order issued against them, they won’t get custody or have visitation rights. This makes using either order in these situations virtually useless, as when the court hearing the matter assesses the situation they will see for themselves what the true state of affairs really is.
In divorce actions these refrain from or stay away orders are also, once again, used as a tool against the other spouse. If allegations of harassment or aggravated harassment are leveled and an order issued, this is read into the record for the court to hear during the child custody and visitation portion of the court hearings. Basically, no one wins in instances like this, and certainly not the children, who should be the major focus in cases like this.
Jeremiah Denslow is a Dayton Divorce Lawyer in Dayton Ohio with Denslow Law Firm. The firm specializes in family law. Jeremiah also practices Dayton criminal defense. To learn more about Dayton divorce lawyer, Dayton dui lawyer, Dayton defense lawyer, Dayton divorce attorney, Dayton dui attorney, Dayton defense attorney, Dayton attorney, Dayton lawyer, Dayton ohio, visit Denslowlaw.com.
