Attorney offers advice on protection from abuse orders
What many people may know as a “restraining order” actually is called a protection from abuse order, at least in Pennsylvania law.
Dan Hargreaves, managing attorney for family law at Neighborhood Legal Services, spoke Wednesday evening at the Butler Area Public Library. He described the filing procedures for PFAs, how they are heard in court, and their legal ramifications if ordered by a judge.
According to Hargreaves, PFAs are a “law designated to protect people in certain relationships from violence and abuse.”
“It’s something available, and it has criminal ramifications,” he said. “Even if police didn’t have enough to act on the night of the incident in question, now you have a court order that says, ‘If the defendant violates the order moving forward, now you have a criminal case.’ You have another layer of protection.”
In Butler County, there were 395 protection from abuse petitions filed in 2019, 314 filed in 2020 and 368 filed in 2021. There also were a handful of sexual violence protection petitions and protection from intimidation petitions filed each year.
Hargreaves said a majority of orders of this nature are requested by a person feeling threatened or in danger by another person, but some requests are made after violence already has occurred.
Hargreaves said PFAs can be requested in an emergency by a family or household member, a spouse, a parent, a child, a person related by blood or marriage, or a sexual or intimate partner against a person they have some relation to if they feel they are in danger.
If a plaintiff can prove reasonable danger before a judge in civil court, this person can get a temporary PFA issued, which could lead to a court date to file an official PFA, which can remain in effect for up to three years.
A person who violates a PFA could face criminal charges, as Hargreaves explained.
“A final order can be effective up to three years, and it can’t be removed from a defendant’s record if issued,” Hargreaves said. “Heaven forbid I violate that PFA — now I’m in a criminal case, now I can get a public defender to help me.”
In Butler County, the protection from abuse and protection from sexual violence or intimidation office is in the Domestic Relations Section on Level L of the Butler County Government Center. Plaintiffs must arrive between 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. Monday through Friday to have their case heard.
