Understanding Emergency Protective Orders
Do you think that you might need an emergency protective order? My name is Carl Birkhead. I’m an attorney with Wirth Law Group in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I’ve been practicing for about seven years, mainly doing family and criminal law. I want to help you make law easy by just explaining what an emergency protective order is and just kind of what you need to show to be able to obtain one.
So an emergency protective order or an EPO, it’s quasi-criminal. Some aspects of it would involve, if it’s violated, it’s a crime to violate a protective order. The first time is a misdemeanor. Subsequent times can be up to felonies. So if you’re trying to get a protective order, most often I’ll see these situations in a domestic situation. The husband needs one against the wife. The wife needs one against the husband. An argument gets too far and gets physical, and so there needs to be an order of protection to keep someone safe.
Types of Situations Requiring an Emergency Protective Order
You have to show that there’s an immediate danger that you would be in danger of absolute harm to justify getting an emergency protective order. Other situations can be where it’s someone stalking and harassing you, harassing phone calls, going up to your place of business, or banging on the door of your house over and over again. Those are a little bit trickier because if you’re going to be asking for an order of protection based on stalking and harassment, you have to accompany it with a police report that you have filed for stalking and harassment.
Whether it’s for stalking harassment or for actual fear of bodily harm, it’s relatively straightforward to get one. Keeping one is a little bit harder. You want to make sure that you have a good basis to justify it going from the emergency states to actually being a final order of protection, though. I’ve seen cases before where the court will treat the allegations as true based on what you said because obviously in an emergency setting, they have to, and then plenty of people will come back and they can’t back it up.
Contact Us for a Low-Cost Initial Strategy Session
If you feel that you’re in a situation where you’re in danger and you need some help, some protection, we are happy to help you. Please don’t hesitate to contact our office at 918-879-1681. My name is Carl Birkhead, and I want to help you to make law easy. Thank you.
