Knoxville Orders of Protection

When a person seeks an order of protection, Tennessee law does not allow the clerk to require that person to pay a filing fee.  If the court grants the order of protection, the court can order the person who is told to stay away from the petitioner to pay the petitioner their attorneys fees, court costs, and other expenses.  However, a court is not allowed to award attorneys fees, court costs, and other expenses to the person who successfully defends the order of protection to a dismissal.  While a lot of orders of protections are agreed to with the understanding they will be dismissed after a period of time, that dismissal does not allow the judge to expunge the public records unless the dismissal was part of hearing.  Since this produces an illogical result, the attorneys at Hodges, Doughty and Carson, PLLC are proposing legislation to change the law in Tennessee on this issue.

An order of protection may order the person who has committed domestic abuse, sexual abuse, harassment, stalking or threatened abuse to stay away from the petitioner and have no contact with them.  In addition a court may award possession of the marital home to one of the parties and order the support of one of the parties by the other.  Orders of protection can also include provisions regarding the custody, visitation and co-parenting time regarding children.

A person who violates the order of protection can be held in criminal or civil contempt, ordered to pay a fine, and order to serve time in the county jail for the violation.  A police officer may arrest the respondent with or without an arrest warrant if he or she has reasonable cause to believe that the person has violated the order of protection.  A person arrested for violating the order of protection may receive a bond so that they can remain free on bail pending the trial.