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Legal Information: Kentucky

Restraining Orders

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Laws current as of December 10, 2025

In what county do I file for a domestic violence order?

You can file for a domestic violence order in the county where:

  1. you live; or
  2. you have fled in order to escape abuse.1

However, you may want to think carefully before you file. If you have left your home, you may not want the abuser to know where you’ve gone. Even if your actual address is hidden from the abuser, filing in your new county would let him/her know that you are living there now.

Your petition can be filed in family court, if the county you’re filing in has one. Otherwise, you can file in either district court or circuit court.2

1 Ky. Rev. Stat. § 403.725(2)
2 Ky. Rev. Stat. § 403.725(6)(a)

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