Civil Protection Orders

Give us a call. We can assist in writing and filing a petition for a temporary protection order. 

If you want to try to do this part yourself, there are resources online to get you started. The process and forms can present a challenge to navigate on your own and vary by jurisdiction. For instance, if you are looking to file a protection order in King County, you could start HERE.

If you end up getting temporary protection order granted on your own, we do not recommend you attempt to seek a permanent order without the assistance of an experienced attorney as the process is more involved, particularly when the Respondent is contesting the order.

You will have a permanent order hearing coming up soon. First, you simply wait to see if the Respondent files any sort of response. 

In many cases, there is no reply filed at all. When this happens, there is most often no need for further filings on your end, and just some general preparation for the upcoming permanent order hearing is needed.

If the Respondent does reply, then you will in turn want to file an additional declaration to support your position and include any relevant exhibits. This is often referred to as a sur reply.

You will want to ensure the Respondent was properly served with the temporary protection order.

At the permanent protection order hearing itself, the commissioner will hear arguments from both sides and make a decision as to whether the order will be granted or denied.

There is of course a lot more to it than this — too much to get into in an FAQ. Simply give us a call and we will explain the whole process in our consultation.

Whether it’s our firm or another experienced firm, you are better off with an attorney. Trying to navigate legal proceedings such as this on your own puts you at a disadvantage. While attorneys can never give any guarantees of success, having an attorney by your side puts you in the best position possible for success.

No. Once hired, we file our Notice Of Appearance and then we work to be prepared for your upcoming hearing. If we either will not be fully prepared yet and/or we have a conflict in our calendar, then we can seek a continuance of the permanent protection order hearing. It is ultimately up to the commissioner to decide whether a continuance request will be granted, but one brief continuance is typically allowed.  If continued, the temporary order would be extended and remain in effect until the new permanent order hearing date.

While it’s understandable to ask this question, it’s not one that can be answered in an FAQ like this. Each case is different and we would need to talk to you at length and review all documents prior to being able to give you an idea of how things are looking with your case. 

That said, there is no time when we would ever be able to provide any sort of exact percentages or odds.

Preponderance of the evidence. This simply means more likely than not. Put another way, 51% to 49%.

No, with your assistance, we write and file a declaration on your behalf. Then at the hearing itself, we make arguments on your behalf based on that declaration and any attached exhibits.

As we do in all of our cases, we charge flat fees for our services rather than hourly rates. The amount of the flat fee will vary based on the projected scope of work. In other words, in order to provide you with an exact quote, we will need to speak with you first.

Yes, for civil protection orders, we do charge a flat fee for consultations (whereas we do not do so for criminal cases). The reason for this is that we read and analyze temporary protection orders and/or other relevant client-provided documents prior to the consultation itself. So we would have to send these documents to us ahead of the consultation. We then review everything ahead of time and then we would spend up to an hour consulting with you. 

The flat fee for our consultations can vary from case to case. That said, the most common fee is $500. If you end up retaining our services after the consultation, this fee is applied towards the rest of the retainer.

Please also note that paying the consultation fee does not obligate us to take on your case.

Yes, as the Petitioner, you can seek to recover attorneys fees if you win. Note that you may not be able to recover the entire fee.

No, even if they Respondent was represented by an attorney at the hearing he/she is not entitled to attorneys fees if they win.

Yes, you have three options to try and have the decision reversed. We would advise you as to which, if any, of the options you may want to consider pursuing.

(1) Motion for reconsideration 

This is a written request made to the same commissioner that made the decision to issue the permanent protection order. It is requesting him/her to reconsider their order based on new information/argument you want to present, or if you believe the order was improperly granted on legal grounds. Note that very few commissioner’s are going to reverse themselves. This motion must be made within 10 calendar days from the day the protection order is granted. 

(2) Motion for revision

This is a request for a judge (rather than a commissioner) to review and re-weigh/consider the evidence presented at the Protection Order hearing, where you are asking them to change the commissioner’s decision because you believe it was wrong. This motion must be made within 10 calendar days from the day the protection order is granted.

(3) Appeal

This is a request that bypasses revision and goes directly to the Washington State Court of Appeals. An appeal must be filed no later than 30 calendar days from from the day the protection order is granted and can take up to a year or more to be heard.