Domestic Violence and DVRO
Domestic Violence Restraining Orders in California
A domestic violence restraining order is one of the fastest and most consequential orders a California court can issue. It can be granted the same day, before the other side has said a word. It can move someone out of their home, take their firearms, change who the children live with, and follow them on a statewide law enforcement database for years.
Pacifica Law Group APC has a dedicated civil domestic violence team. We represent both people seeking protection and people defending against allegations, in superior courts throughout California. Matthew Hidayat leads this practice, and other firms regularly bring him in as co-counsel to handle the domestic violence portion of a divorce or custody case while they continue with the rest of the matter.
What a restraining order actually does
California’s Domestic Violence Prevention Act (Family Code section 6200 and following) allows a court to order someone to stay away from, and stop contacting, a person they have a close relationship with — a spouse or former spouse, a dating or former dating partner, a co-parent, or a close relative. A judge can issue a temporary restraining order without notice, usually the same or next court day, and then set a full hearing, ordinarily within 21 days. After that hearing an order can last up to five years, and can be renewed for another five years or permanently.
A restraining order is not only a stay-away order. It can also:
- Order a person out of a shared home, even if their name is on the lease or the deed
- Require firearms to be surrendered within 24 hours (Family Code section 6389)
- Set temporary child custody and a visitation schedule
- Order child or spousal support and payment of attorney’s fees
- Be entered into CLETS, the statewide law enforcement database
Violating a restraining order is a crime under Penal Code section 273.6. For a non-citizen, a judicial finding that the protective portion of such an order was violated is a ground of deportability under federal immigration law.
How a DVRO case moves through a California court
Most people meet this process during the worst week of their life, with no idea what happens next. Here is the sequence, and roughly how fast it runs.
1. The request is filed. The person asking for protection files Form DV-100, describing specific incidents and dates, together with a CLETS-001 information form. If there are children, custody and visitation requests go in at the same time.
2. A judge rules on a temporary order, often the same day. This happens ex parte — without the other side present, and usually without any notice to them. If the judge grants it, the temporary restraining order issues on Form DV-110 and a hearing date is set on Form DV-109.
3. The papers are served. The restrained person has to be personally served. Nothing in the order binds them until that happens, and service is also what starts the firearm clock.
4. The hearing is held within 21 days. Family Code section 242 requires the hearing within 21 days of the temporary order being granted or denied, or 25 days if the court finds good cause. Continuances happen, but the default is fast.
5. The judge decides. After testimony and evidence, the court either denies the request and dissolves the temporary order, or issues a restraining order after hearing on Form DV-130, for a fixed term of up to five years.
6. Renewal. Before the order expires, the protected person can ask to renew it — permanently or for another five years — without having to prove that new abuse occurred.
What the judge is actually deciding
The question at the hearing is narrower than most people expect. The court is not deciding who is the better parent, or who filed for divorce first. It is deciding whether the evidence shows, by a preponderance — more likely than not — that abuse occurred as the Domestic Violence Prevention Act defines it.
That definition reaches well past physical violence. Under Family Code sections 6203 and 6320, abuse includes causing or attempting to cause bodily injury, sexual assault, placing someone in reasonable apprehension of imminent serious bodily injury, and disturbing the peace of the other party — which the statute now expressly includes coercive control: isolating a person from friends and family, controlling their money, monitoring their movements or communications, or threatening their immigration status.
What decides these hearings is proof. Message threads pulled properly and in full rather than in screenshots. Photographs with their metadata intact. Call logs, medical records, police reports. Witnesses who were actually there, subpoenaed early enough to appear. And, on the defense side, the context a petition leaves out: the messages before and after the ones quoted, the timeline that does not fit, the custody hearing that happened to be two weeks away.
Firearms, mutual orders, and custody
Firearms. A restrained person must relinquish any firearm within 24 hours of being served and file the receipt with the court within 48 hours (Family Code section 6389). A qualifying order also triggers a federal prohibition on possessing firearms or ammunition for as long as the order lasts. For anyone whose work requires a firearm, this is often the most immediate consequence of the case.
Mutual orders. A court cannot simply issue orders against both people because both asked. Family Code section 6305 requires that both parties personally file written requests, and that the judge make detailed findings that both acted primarily as aggressors and that neither acted primarily in self-defense. Agreeing to a mutual order to make a case go away is rarely the harmless compromise it looks like.
Custody. Family Code section 3044 creates a rebuttable presumption that awarding custody to a person the court has found perpetrated domestic violence within the previous five years is detrimental to the child. That presumption is why a DVRO hearing is very often the hearing that decides the custody case, whether or not anyone in the room says so out loud.
Where we come in
Obtaining an order
Emergency filings, temporary orders, and a fully prepared case at the hearing that follows.
Defending an allegation
Investigation, context, and a real defense when a petition is inaccurate or tactical.
Custody, criminal, immigration
The three consequences a DVRO finding sets in motion, handled together in one office.
Why these cases need a litigator
DVRO hearings move fast. The evidence is usually text messages, photographs, recordings, and witnesses who have to be found and subpoenaed quickly. And the findings a judge makes at that hearing carry into every other case in the family’s life — the custody case, the criminal case, and for a non-citizen, the immigration case. That is why we treat these as trials, not as paperwork.
Common questions
How fast can I get a restraining order in California?
A judge can grant a temporary order the same day or the next court day, based on your written request alone. The full hearing follows within 21 days, or 25 with good cause.
I was just served with a DVRO. What do I do first?
Follow the order exactly, even if you believe every word of the petition is false. Violating it is a separate crime under Penal Code section 273.6 and will hurt you far more than the petition itself. Relinquish any firearm within 24 hours. Then talk to a lawyer, and do it early. These cases run on a short calendar, and what follows — whether to answer in writing, what to say, what is better left for the hearing — turns on your facts rather than on a form.
Do I have to go to the hearing?
Yes. If you are the restrained person and you do not appear, the court can issue an order against you for up to five years on the petition alone. If you are the protected person and you do not appear, your temporary order will usually dissolve.
How long does a restraining order last?
An order after hearing can last up to five years. Before it expires it can be renewed for another five years or permanently, and the protected person does not have to show that new abuse occurred.
Can a restraining order be removed from my record?
An order that has issued can be terminated or modified on a proper motion, and a request that was denied or dismissed should not remain in CLETS. What cannot be undone is a judicial finding of abuse once it is made, which is why the hearing matters more than anything that comes after it.
What does a restraining order mean for my immigration status?
The order itself is a civil order. But a court finding that you violated the protective portion of one is a ground of deportability under federal immigration law, and a related criminal conviction can be a deportable crime of domestic violence. If you are not a U.S. citizen, the immigration analysis has to happen before you agree to anything, not after.
Can I get a restraining order if the abuse was not physical?
Yes. Disturbing the peace of the other party is enough, and that expressly includes coercive control: isolating you from family and friends, controlling your finances, tracking your phone or your movements, or threatening to report your immigration status.
Is there a filing fee?
No. There is no filing fee for a domestic violence restraining order request in California, and no fee for the sheriff to serve it. Attorney fees are a separate question, and in some cases the court can order the other side to pay them.
A note on safety. If you are in immediate danger, call 911. If you are reading this on a device someone else can see, consider using a private browsing window or a device they do not have access to, and clearing your history when you finish. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-7233, 24 hours a day.
Where we appear
We handle domestic violence restraining order cases in superior courts throughout California, and appear regularly in Solano, Sacramento, Contra Costa, Yolo, Napa, Alameda, San Francisco and San Joaquin counties. Our offices are in Benicia and Sacramento.
Talk to our domestic violence team
Consultations are confidential. If you are in immediate danger, call 911 first.
Call (415) 776-1633Contact UsThis page describes how California law generally works. It is not advice about your situation — we would need the facts for that, and the facts are what decide these cases. Reading this page does not make us your lawyers, so please hold back the confidential details until we have agreed to represent you. Once we have, tell us everything. Full Legal Notice.