Domestic Violence Restraining Orders in California: The Complete Guide
Last reviewed: Checked against the current California code on this date.
A domestic violence restraining order (a “DVRO”) is California’s strongest protective order. It is for people being hurt, threatened, or controlled by someone close to them: a partner, an ex, a family member, or someone they live with. This guide explains the whole thing in plain language, whether you are asking for one or one has been filed against you.
The short version: you fill out a set of free court forms, a judge reads them and decides the same day whether to give you a temporary order, and then everyone comes back within about three weeks for a hearing where the judge decides whether to make the order last for years. There is no filing fee, the sheriff serves the papers for free, and you do not need a lawyer to do it.
Is a DVRO the right order for your situation?
A DVRO is only available when you have a close relationship with the other person. Under Family Code 6211, that means:
- ☐ Your spouse or ex-spouse
- ☐ Someone you are dating or used to date, or were engaged to
- ☐ Someone you live with or used to live with as more than roommates
- ☐ The other parent of your child
- ☐ Your child, or a close relative: parent, grandparent, sibling, or in-laws that close
If the person harassing you is a neighbor, coworker, acquaintance, or stranger, you want a civil harassment restraining order instead. We have a full guide on that one too.
What counts as “abuse” (it is much more than hitting)
This is the single most misunderstood thing about DVROs. You do not need bruises, a police report, or even a single act of physical violence. Under Family Code 6203, abuse includes hurting or trying to hurt you, sexual assault, and making you reasonably afraid you are about to be seriously hurt. But it also includes threats, stalking, harassment, constant unwanted contact, destroying your things, and “disturbing your peace.”
Coercive control counts as abuse in California. The law says destroying someone’s mental or emotional calm is abuse, and that includes a pattern of controlling behavior: cutting you off from friends and family, taking away basic necessities, or controlling and monitoring your money, your phone, your movements, or your daily life (Family Code 6320). Many people live with this for years without realizing a judge can order it to stop.
Read more: the full legal definition of abuse
Family Code 6203 defines abuse four ways: (1) intentionally or recklessly causing or attempting to cause bodily injury; (2) sexual assault; (3) placing a person in reasonable fear of imminent serious bodily injury to themselves or someone else; and (4) any behavior a court could stop under Family Code 6320. The statute says flat out that abuse is not limited to physical injury or assault.
Family Code 6320 is the long list. A judge can order someone to stop: molesting, attacking, striking, stalking, threatening, sexually assaulting, battering, harassing, making annoying phone calls, destroying personal property, impersonating you online, contacting you directly or indirectly by any means, coming within a set distance of you, and disturbing your peace.
“Disturbing the peace” is defined as conduct that, looking at the whole picture, destroys the other person’s mental or emotional calm. It can happen through third parties, phones, texts, online accounts, or smart devices. It expressly includes coercive control, meaning a pattern of behavior that unreasonably interferes with your free will and personal liberty. The statute’s own examples: isolating you from friends, relatives, or other support; depriving you of basic necessities; and controlling, regulating, or monitoring your movements, communications, daily behavior, finances, economic resources, or access to services.
California appellate courts have called this definition of abuse the linchpin of the whole domestic violence law, and they read it broadly. The abuse also does not have to be aimed at you in person: courts have found abuse in social media posts, in messages sent through other people, and in electronic monitoring.
One important caution, because people get this wrong. That does not mean a single post is enough. An appellate court has held that one post, standing on its own, did not support an order. What courts look for is a pattern, and context. If your evidence is online, gather all of it and be ready to show the whole picture rather than one screenshot.
A DVRO from filing to renewal
Five stages. The first decision comes the day you file. The one that decides years comes about three weeks later.
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Day you file
You file the paperwork
DV-100 with CLETS-001. There is no filing fee for a DVRO, ever.
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Same day, or the next court day
The judge decides on a temporary order
A judge must grant or deny a temporary restraining order that same day. The bar is deliberately low: “reasonable proof” of past abuse from your written statement, under Family Code 6300. Your own sworn words are enough, and the judge cannot deny it just because the other person has not been told yet.
If granted, it protects you immediately and lasts until the hearing.
If it is deniedThe case is not over. The hearing still happens. -
Before the hearing
The other person is served
They must be personally handed the papers before the order can be enforced against them, and you cannot do it yourself. Law enforcement service is free for DVROs. The proof-of-service form, DV-200, gets filed with the court.
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Within 21 days of the temporary order decision
The hearing
This is where it is really decided. The judge hears both sides and decides whether to issue an order that lasts for years. The standard is preponderance of the evidence.
One exception25 days if the court finds good cause. -
After the hearing
An order for up to 5 years
The judge can issue it for up to five years under Family Code 6345. If the form does not state an end date, it automatically lasts three years, which is the detail people miss.
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The last 3 months before it expires
The renewal window
The protected person can ask to renew for five more years, or permanently. You do not have to show any new abuse happened. The question is whether you still have a reasonable fear of future abuse. A renewed order cannot be shorter than five years, and the firearms ban continues with it.
Read the two red boxes as clocks, not suggestions. The 21 days runs from the temporary order decision, not from the day you filed, and the renewal window opens only in the final three months. Miss the renewal window and the order lapses on its own.
What this chart cannot tell you: how your particular courthouse schedules the hearing inside those 21 days, and what the judge will make of your facts. The dates are statewide law. Everything about how it feels in the room is not.
Step 1: Fill out the forms (free)
Everything is a fill-in-the-blank court form, free to download from the California courts website or to pick up at the courthouse self-help center. Our step-by-step guide to asking for a restraining order walks through the filing mechanics for every order type:
- DV-100: the request. This is the main form where you tell the judge what happened.
- CLETS-001: a confidential information sheet so law enforcement can enforce the order statewide.
- The clerk adds the notice-of-hearing and temporary order forms (DV-109 and DV-110) to your packet.
The heart of DV-100 is your description of the abuse. Be specific: dates, places, exact words of threats, injuries, photos, screenshots. Start with the most recent incident and work backward. Write it like you are talking directly to the judge, because you are. The judge usually decides the temporary order based only on what you wrote, the same day, without seeing you.
Step 2: The temporary order (the judge decides the same day)
When you file, a judge must grant or deny a temporary restraining order that same day, or the next court day if you filed late. The bar at this stage is intentionally low: the judge just needs “reasonable proof” of past abuse from your written statement (Family Code 6300). Your own sworn words are enough. The law does not require witnesses, police reports, or any other backup, and the judge cannot deny it just because the other person has not been told yet.
If granted, the temporary order protects you immediately and lasts until the hearing. If denied, do not give up: the hearing still happens, and the judge can still grant the full order there after hearing both sides.
Step 3: Service and the hearing (within about three weeks)
The other person must be personally handed the papers before the order can be enforced against them. You cannot do this yourself. Ask for law enforcement service, which is free for DVROs, or have any adult who is not part of the case do it. The proof-of-service form (DV-200) then gets filed with the court.
The hearing must happen within 21 days of the temporary order decision, or 25 days if the court finds good cause (Family Code 242). At the hearing the judge hears both sides and decides whether to issue a restraining order that lasts for years. The standard is preponderance of the evidence, meaning the judge just has to find your account more likely true than not. That is the lowest proof standard in law, and it is lower than what civil harassment cases require.
Read more: continuances, mutual orders, and how the hearing actually runs
Continuances. The person responding to the order gets one postponement as a matter of right, no reason needed (Family Code 245(a)). Either side can also ask for more time for good cause, and courts grant these routinely, especially to look for a lawyer (Family Code 245(b)). The temporary order stays in effect the whole time, so a continuance does not leave the protected person exposed (Family Code 245(c)).
What the hearing looks like. These hearings are short, often minutes. The judge has read the papers. Each side tells its story, shows its evidence, and answers the judge’s questions. Witnesses are allowed but should be people who saw or heard things themselves. Bring three copies of everything.
Mutual restraining orders are rare on purpose. A judge cannot just restrain both people to split the difference. Under Family Code 6305, a mutual order requires both people to have filed their own written request on the official form, both to appear personally, and the judge to make detailed findings that each person was a primary aggressor and neither acted mainly in self-defense. If the other side shows up saying “restrain them too,” that alone gets them nothing.
Criminal cases are separate. If there is also a criminal case, the criminal court may issue its own protective order. The two can exist at the same time, and having one does not block the other. The rule of thumb when orders overlap: the more restrictive term controls.
What the order can actually do
A DVRO is a menu, and you check the boxes you need. Depending on what you ask for and what the judge grants, it can order the person to:
- Have no contact with you at all: no calls, texts, emails, DMs, or messages through friends
- Stay away a set distance (often 100 yards) from you, your home, your job, your car, and your children’s school
- Move out of the home you share, even if their name is on the lease or title
- Hand over all firearms and ammunition (details below, the deadlines are strict)
- Stay away from your pets, and leave them in your care
- Follow temporary child custody and visitation orders made in the same case
Once granted, the order goes into the statewide law enforcement database (CLETS). Any officer anywhere in California can see it and enforce it on the spot.
The firearms rules are automatic and the deadlines are brutal. The moment a DVRO is issued, even the temporary one, the restrained person cannot own, possess, buy, or receive any gun or ammunition (Family Code 6389). They must turn everything over to police or a licensed dealer within 24 hours of being served, and file the receipt with the court within 48 hours. Missing the paperwork deadline is itself a violation of the order, and having a gun while restrained is a separate crime. The judge cannot waive this restriction, even when renewing an order, except for narrow on-duty exceptions for some peace officers.
How long it lasts, and renewal
After the hearing, the judge can issue the order for up to five years (Family Code 6345). If the form does not state an end date, it automatically lasts three years.
Renewal is easier than people think. In the last three months before the order expires, the protected person can ask to renew it for five more years, or even permanently. You do not have to show any new abuse happened. The question at renewal is whether you still have a reasonable fear of future abuse, and courts have said the fact that the order worked is itself a good reason to keep it. A renewed order cannot be shorter than five years, and the firearms ban continues with it.
Read more: violations, penalties, and emergency protective orders
Breaking the order is a crime. An intentional violation is a misdemeanor under Penal Code 273.6: up to a year in county jail and a fine up to $1,000. If the violation causes physical injury, jail time has a mandatory minimum. A second conviction within seven years that involves violence or a credible threat can be charged as a felony. Police must arrest when they have probable cause to believe a DVRO was violated; they do not have discretion to just warn.
The order binds the restrained person only. If the protected person reaches out first and the restrained person responds, the restrained person is the one who committed a crime. This trap catches people constantly, in both directions. Protected people: understand that inviting contact puts the other person in jail, not you, and it hands them an argument at any renewal hearing. Restrained people: never respond, save the message instead.
Emergency protective orders (EPOs) are the same-night option. When police respond to a domestic violence call, the officer can phone a judge, available 24 hours a day, and get an immediate order on the spot. It lasts only about a week (five court days or seven calendar days, whichever ends first). Its whole job is to hold the line while the protected person files the DV-100 packet. If you get an EPO, file before it runs out so there is no gap.
Cost: zero. There is no filing fee for a DVRO, no fee to respond to one, and law enforcement serves the papers free. This is true regardless of income, no fee waiver application needed.
If a DVRO was filed against you
Read the papers carefully and check whether a temporary order is actually in effect. Judges sometimes deny the temporary order and still set a hearing; the restrictions may not have started yet. Either way, the smart move is the same: stay away and stay silent. Then respond on form DV-120, deal with any firearms immediately, and show up to the hearing. You get one continuance just by asking if you need time to prepare or find a lawyer. We wrote a full guide for this side of the case: what to do first when you are served.
The part nobody tells you: temporary orders are granted freely
Here is the honest picture of how the first stage works. Judges grant temporary orders very readily, on a minimal amount of evidence. Two things drive that. California judges are elected, and no judge wants to be seen as soft on domestic violence. Far more importantly, no judge wants to be the one who turned away a person who then got hurt or killed. Faced with a paper request and no way to test it yet, the safe call is to grant it and sort it out at the hearing.
The backstop is that these are only temporary. A hearing follows in about three weeks, and that is where the real test happens. Everything above about evidence applies with more force there: the judge now hears both sides, and the person who asked for the order has to actually prove the abuse. Plenty of temporary orders that were granted easily do not survive the hearing.
Be honest with yourself about why you are filing. DVROs have become an aggressive tool in family law. People file freely, because a granted order puts you in the driver’s seat: it shapes custody and it can decide who stays in the house. Judges know this. A request that reads like a custody move dressed up as a safety request damages your credibility at the hearing, and the law makes it hard to fix later. If your safety is the reason, say so plainly and prove it. If it is not, a family law attorney can get you the same custody and residence relief through the right motion.
If someone is filing against you unfairly, and you have real grounds of your own, do not sit on them. Timing matters more than people realize in these cases. The person who files first sets the frame: their facts are the ones the judge reads first, and they get the temporary order that shapes custody and living arrangements while everything else plays out. If you have genuinely been abused, or you can see a false petition coming, talk to a lawyer about filing your own request now instead of waiting to play defense.
Two warnings on that. First, this only works if your grounds are real. A retaliatory or invented petition tends to blow up at the hearing and takes your credibility with it, and judges see this pattern constantly. Second, filing your own request does not get you an automatic mutual order. Under Family Code 6305, a judge cannot restrain both people unless each of you filed your own request, both of you appear, and the judge makes specific findings that both were primary aggressors and neither was mainly defending themselves. You file your own case because your own facts deserve their own order, not as a bargaining chip.
What we see in real cases
- The temporary order rises or falls on your paperwork, and the bar is low. No one testifies at that stage. A clear, dated, specific DV-100 almost always gets a temporary order. The hearing is where thin requests come apart.
- Show the judge, do not just tell. Screenshots, texts, photos, and videos carry more weight than any description of fear, however real the fear is. Attach your proof to the request.
- Best evidence beats most evidence. One dated screenshot of a threat does more than a thick stack of vague pages. Put your strongest item first.
- Get to the point. Judges hear these calendars all day and decide fast. Facts in order, with dates, win. Rambling loses the room.
- Keep your feelings on a leash in the courtroom. These cases involve the people who know exactly how to get under your skin, and they are sitting right there. If you let them pull you into anger or tears mid-hearing, the judge sees someone out of control instead of someone credible. Breathe, look at the judge, and stick to your notes. (We have a short guide on how to dress and act in court; read it before your date.)
- The relationship boxes matter more than people expect. Judges check the qualifying-relationship question first. If your situation is really a roommate or neighbor dispute, filing a DVRO wastes your temporary protection window; file the right order the first time.
- Coercive control cases are won with patterns, not incidents. One controlling text proves nothing. Ninety days of location-demand texts, a spreadsheet of confiscated paychecks, or a witness who saw the isolation happen proves a pattern.
- If you feel unsafe at the courthouse, tell courtroom staff when you check in. Say it plainly. They will arrange help getting in and out of the building so you are never alone with the other person.
Do you need a lawyer?
No. The system is built for people without lawyers: mandatory forms, no fees, self-help centers, free service. Thousands of people get and fight these orders on their own every month.
A lawyer earns their fee when custody is tangled into the case, when the other side has hired one, or when the hearing will be a real fight over what happened. If you hire one, hire local. A lawyer who works in your county’s family courts knows how those judges run these hearings, and that is the knowledge that actually moves the needle.
This is general information, not legal advice. If you are in danger, call 911. Talk to a California attorney about your situation.