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Orders of Protection: What Do They Do?

By Baker Associates

If you or anyone you know has been the respondent to an order of protection, you are probably at least generally familiar with the basic workings of such an order. If you have never been a respondent to an order of protection or have little familiarity with the topic, what an order of protection may specifically prohibit can be found in the Tennessee Code. T.C.A. § 36-3-606 defines the scope of a protection order. The language of this statute is critical for many defendants who have been charged with violating such an order, because those defendants may have a valid defense to the charge if the conduct they engaged in is not actually prohibited by the specific order or by the terms used in the order that are referenced in the statute. An order of protection can, but does not have to, include language that does any of the following or any combination of the following: ?(1) Directing the respondent to refrain from committing domestic abuse, stalking or sexual assault or threatening to commit domestic abuse, stalking or sexual assault against the petitioner or the petitioner's minor children; (2) Prohibiting the respondent from telephoning, contacting, or otherwise communicating with the petitioner, directly or indirectly; (3) Prohibiting the respondent from stalking the petitioner, as defined in § 39-17-315; (4) Granting to the petitioner possession of the residence or household to the exclusion of the respondent by evicting the respondent, by restoring possession to the petitioner, or by both; (5) Directing the respondent to provide suitable alternate housing for the petitioner when the respondent is the sole owner or lessee of the residence or household; continue to full post

Full post as published by Tennessee Criminal Lawyer Blog on April 08, 2010 (boomark / email).