Restraining Orders

A parent, legal guardian, “next friend” or the State Department of Human Resources may file on behalf of a minor or any person prevented by physical or mental incapacity from seeking a protection order. To file a petition for a protection order on one’s own, the petitioner must be 18 or older or an emancipated minor.¹

If you, the adult, are filing a petition on behalf of a minor child who is living at home and the petition is against the child’s parent, step-parent, or legal guardian, you must:

• have been an eyewitness to the specific acts of abuse or circumstances alleged in the petition;
• have affidavits from eyewitnesses of the specific acts of abuse or circumstances alleged in the petition; or 
• have direct physical evidence of the specific acts of abuse or circumstances alleged in the petition.²

If you are filing on behalf of a minor child who is living at home and the petition is against someone other than a parent, step-parent, or legal guardian of a minor child, you must have reasonable cause to believe that the minor child is a victim of the acts of abuse or circumstances alleged in the petition.²

¹ Ala. Code § 30-5-5(a)
² Ala. Code § 30-5-5(c)