Restraining Orders

To file for an extreme risk protection order, you must be:

1. the respondent’s intimate partner, which includes:
   
   • current or former spouses or domestic partners;
   • parents to the same child regardless of whether you were married to the respondent or lived with the respondent at any time, unless the child was conceived through sexual assault; or
   • dating partners as long as both of you are at least 13 years old;¹
2. family or household member, which includes people who are:
   
   • related by blood, marriage, domestic partnership, or adoption;
   • living together, or have lived together;
   • in a biological or legal parent-child relationship, including step-parents and step-children and grandparents and grandchildren, or a parent’s intimate partner and children; or
   • in a legal guardian relationship – in other words, where you are or were the respondent’s legal guardian;² or
3. a law enforcement officer or agency.³ 

If a law enforcement agency files a petition for an extreme risk protection order against a respondent who is your intimate partner or family or household member, the agency is required to try to notify you and any other third party known to be at risk for violence.⁴ 

¹ R.C.W. § 7.105.010(20)
² R.C.W. § 7.105.010(13)
³ R.C.W. § 7.105.100(1)(e)
⁴ R.C.W. § 7.105.110(2)(a)