Restraining Orders

A temporary (ex parte) or permanent protection order may:

• order the abuser to stop hitting, threatening, or harming you or your children;
• order the abuser to stay away from you and/or your children;
• order the abuser to stop contacting you and/or your children;
• order the abuser to move out of the home you share or out of your home if you can prove that physical or emotional harm would happen if s/he stayed in the home;
• order the abuser to stay away from your home;
• order the abuser to not interfere with your job or school or do anything that would harm your employment or educational relationships/environment;
• give you temporary care and control of your children and order parenting time rights, supervised or unsupervised, which can last up to one year;
• give you temporary decision-making responsibility when it is related to preventing domestic abuse or preventing the child from witnessing domestic abuse;
• order the abuser to continue to make payments on the mortgage or rent, insurance, utilities and related household services, transportation, medical care, or child care when the respondent has an existing duty or legal obligation;
• order the abuser to not hide or get rid of your personal effects, land, or homes that are yours alone or shared with the abuser;
• order the abuser to not threaten, harm, kill, hide or take any animal owned by you or by a child of you or the abuser;
• make specific arrangements for the possession and care of an animal owned by you or by a child of you or the abuser;¹
• order both of the following if, after reviewing the petition, the judge determines that an act of domestic violence took place and it involved physical force or the threat or attempt to use physical force:
  • order the abuser to not have firearms or ammunition while the order is in effect;
  • order the abuser to give up any firearms that s/he currently has in his/her possession to a licensed firearms dealer, private party, or to law enforcement;² and
• do anything else that the judge thinks is necessary for your safety.¹

An emergency protection order can do any of the following:

• order that the abuser stop contacting, harassing, injuring, intimidating, threatening, molesting, touching, stalking, sexually assaulting or abusing the victim, the victim’s child, or the abuser’s child;
• order that the abuser be removed from the home you share or from your home if it is shown that physical or emotional harm would otherwise happen;
• give temporary care and control of any minor child involved;
• order the abuser to not contact the child at school, at work, or wherever s/he may be found;
• order the abuser to not threaten, harm, kill, hide or take any animal owned by the victim or by a child of either party; and
• make specific arrangements for the possession and care of an animal owned by the victim or by a child of either party.³

Whether a judge orders all or some of the above depends on the facts of your case.

¹ Colo. Rev. Stat. §§ 13-14-105(1)(a)-(j), (1)(I); 13-14-104.5(8)
² Colo. Rev. Stat. § 13-14-105.5(11), (1)(a), (2)(c)
³ Colo. Rev. Stat § 13-14-103(1)(b)