Restraining Orders

You can file for an extreme risk protection order if the respondent is at risk of using a firearm to harm themselves or others. Additionally, to file for an extreme risk protection order, you must be:

• the respondent’s family or household member;
• a law enforcement agency;
• a police officer;
• the district attorney; 
• employed as a school administrator or the school administrator’s employee (designee) at a school that the respondent currently attends or attended in the past six months, or
• a physician, psychiatrist, psychologist, registered nurse, clinical social worker, clinical nurse specialist, nurse practitioner, clinical marriage and family therapist, professional nurse, master social worker, or mental health counselor who treated the respondent within the past six months.¹

Family or household member means:

1. the respondent’s:
   
   1. current or former spouse;
   2. relative by blood or marriage;
2. a person who has a child with the respondent, including an adopted child;
3. a person who lives or has lived with the respondent;
4. a person who has or had an “intimate relationship” with the respondent, which can be determined using:
   
   1. the nature or type of the relationship, regardless of whether it is sexual;
   2. how often the parties interact; 
   3. the length of the relationship; and
5. any other person who is legally considered a victim of domestic violence by the office of children and family services.²

A school administrator is the school principal or other similar type of school leader.³ A school administrator’s designee includes anyone picked by the school to start a case, including:

• teachers;
• guidance counselors;
• school psychologists;
• school nurses; and
• coaches.⁴

¹ N.Y. ​C.P.L.R. § 6340(2)
² N.Y. ​Soc. Serv. Law § 459-A(2); New York Courts website
³ N.Y. ​Educ. Law § 1125(6)
⁴ N.Y. ​C.P.L.R. § 6340(2); New York Courts website