Restraining Orders

If you have a valid Hawai‘i protective order that meets federal standards, it can be enforced in another state. The Violence Against Women Act, which is a federal law, says that all valid orders of protection granted in the United States receive “full faith and credit” in all state and tribal courts within the U.S., including U.S. territories.¹

In other words, every state must enforce out-of-state protection orders in the same way it enforces its own orders. So, if the abuser violates your Hawai‘i domestic abuse protective order in another state, they will be punished according to the laws of that state. That’s what “full faith and credit” means.

¹ 18 U.S.C. § 2265