- [Lecturer] We would like to welcome you to our five-part training series on domestic violence, sexual assault, and disability. This series is brought to you by the Miami Inclusion Alliance. The Miami Inclusion Alliance is comprised of four organizations that have spent the last three years studying the domestic violence and sexual assault services in Miami-Dade County Florida, and how persons with disabilities are utilizing these services. What we have found through our work, is that there is a disconnect between the services that our community provides, and the outreach to persons with disabilities. This training series is the first step to bridging that gap. We are currently working internally to train our organizations, and then we will be going out into the community to share the knowledge and information that we have gained. The Miami Inclusion Alliance partners are: Disability Independence Group, an advocacy center for disability rights. Dade Legal Aid, a legal provider that handles domestic violence and sexual assault cases. MUJER, our state-certified sexual assault center. And CVAC, Miami-Dade County's one-stop center for domestic violence. This project is supported by Grant No. 2015-FW-AX-K001, awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, US Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women. This is a five-part training series. You will notice that we have embedded accessibility features into the trainings. All of the videos have been captioned, so that you can read the words that we are speaking. All of the videos are being interpreted in ASL, or American Sign Language. The font size of the words on the slides are large. We are using a sans serif font that is easy to read. The colors used on the slides have been tested to make sure that there is a contrast between the colors for better viewing. These trainings are designed so that you can watch any of the trainings in any order that you would like. The training you're about to watch is called The Legal System 101. It will focus on the protection order process in Miami-Dade County Florida. The mission of the Miami Inclusion Alliance is to learn about the intersection of disability and domestic violence and/or sexual assault, in order to promote a culture of inclusion within and between all collaborating agencies. This collaboration will implement the necessary changes so that persons with disabilities who are affected by domestic violence and/or sexual assault have access to services. This webinar will be presented by Steven Paulson, Supervising Attorney of Dade Legal Aid's domestic violence division, and Director of Litigation. Mr. Paulson has assisted thousands of victims in the areas of family law, domestic violence, and sexual assault. Dade Legal Aid provides a critical safety net of civil legal services for the neediest residents of Miami-Dade County, by offering an array of services. Together with the leadership of the Dade County Bar Association, numerous affiliated voluntary bar associations, the Florida Bar, and community-based partners, Dade Legal Aid is committed to providing access to justice to those who need it most. Welcome, Steven.

- [Steven] Thank you. And welcome The Legal System 101. As a result of this training, you will better understand the Florida Statutes as they relate to orders of protection for domestic violence. Orders, understand how to assist a victim who is seeking an injunction for protection. Working knowledge of the DV court process. Understand the difference between protection orders and criminal stay away orders. Now before we get too far into it, I wanna bring out some terms, for example, DV stands, obviously, for domestic violence and we'll use that interchangeably. We also use the term victim very often in this because that's how it's related in the Florida Statutes. We talk about the petitioner as well, who is also the victim. The victim is in the petitioner position in this case, so we use that word often as well, interchangeably with victim, petitioner. The respondent, we use that term, he is the perpetrator or abuser, and again I say he but that's not necessarily the case. Just very often that is, but of course it could be anyone of any sex or any identity. Protection orders, again, talking about the various terms that we use, protection orders are also called injunctions, they're called restraining orders, they're called orders of protection. So if you're a victim of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual violence, repeat violence, or stalking, or you have been threatened and believe you are in imminent danger of becoming a victim, you may ask the court for an injunction for protection. Protection Order. Under the Florida Statutes, 741.30, that's the Domestic Violence Statute. Any person described in paragraph E, now paragraph E, we'll talk about that a little bit more later, but basically it's a family or household member, you're not required to be married, who is either the victim of domestic violence, as defined in Statute 741.28, and again those are also the definitions that we're also able to do. Or has reasonable cause to believe he or she is in imminent danger of becoming the victim of any act of domestic violence, has standing in the circuit court to file a sworn petition for an injunction for protection against domestic violence. So that's basically the language of 741.30. And we'll get into the details as we follow. So the definitions of domestic violence itself, is, an assault, aggravated assault, battery, aggravated battery, sexual assault, sexual battery, stalking, kidnapping, false imprisonment. Now, each of these, types of violence has its own definition. So for example, an assault is basically a threat with an apparent ability to carry it out, and a step towards the furtherance of that threat. So an example of that would be, if you are involved in an incident, say, in your front yard with an abuser. And the abuser raises his hand and moves towards you as if he's going to hit you, you run into the house and you close the door, he's not able to hit you. Most likely that's an assault. An aggravated assault is basically an assault with some aggravating factor, which could be a weapon or something about the individual itself that elevates that assault to something a little bit more serious. A battery is defined as an unwanted touching. And that could be pretty much anything from a tap on your hand, to the more obvious things that everybody assumes is a battery, we're talking about hitting and punching. An aggravated battery, again is, an aggravating factor to that unwanted touching, again it could be a weapon or something about the person, the individual, that would cause this to be an elevated battery. A sexual assault, and sexual battery. A sexual battery is a rape. A sexual battery involves penetration, it includes penetration of pretty much anything on any part of the body. A sexual assault is an attempted rape or penetration that for some reason is not completed. Stalking, again, has its own very specific definition. So stalking would be a course of conduct over a period of time, no matter how short, that evidences a continuity of purpose. That causes extreme emotional distress in the person, and serves no legitimate purpose. Oh and this also includes cyber stalking, which would be through email or any type of electronic communication. So everybody knows that if somebody's following you, that there's a good chance that they're stalking. If they are calling you repeatedly, there's a good chance that they are stalking. However, an exception to something like that might be if what they call, under that definition that I gave, is a legitimate purpose. So if you owe your rent money to the landlord, and they're calling your repetitively, it may not be stalking. If you have a child in common with the other party, and they are coming by the house and trying to see the child, it may not be stalking. Aggravated stalking, again, any time you have aggravated as part of the definition on any of these items, it just means that there's some factor to it. Either the individual or some way that it's done that elevates. When it comes to aggravated stalking, it includes a credible threat to that definition that I already gave, there has to be a credible threat. Now kidnapping, kidnapping is simply the moving and confining of one person from a place from one place to another. Okay? False imprisonment is just keeping someone from leaving, leaving some area. So those are the basic definitions of domestic violence found under 741.28. Now, also in 741.28. We get into what a family or household member means. And this is again, related paragraph E in the original definition. So it can be spouses, former spouses, persons related by blood or marriage, persons who are presently residing together as if a family, or who have resided together in the past as if a family. And persons who are parents of a child in common, regardless of whether they have been married. Now, persons who are related by blood or marriage, must be either residing together currently or have resided together in the past, to qualify in this. Now, persons who are the parents of a child in common, regardless of whether they have married, they're the only ones that do not need to live together and they do not have to have lived together, the fact that they have this child in common qualifies them for the definition of family or household member. Question one. Who can file for a protection order? A, daughter against a father? B, husband against a wife? C, ex-girlfriend against father of the minor child? D, none of the above? Or E, all of the above? This one would would be E, all of the above. A daughter can file against her father. A husband can file against a wife. An ex-girlfriend can file against the father of the minor child. As long as each of these meet the family or household requirements, they can file for a protection order. Where do you obtain an injunction for protection? You may file an injunction in the county where you temporarily or permanently live, where the perpetrator lives, or where the violence occurred. Now we may talk about filing where you temporarily live, that can be a short amount of time, it's not that you have to be there for a real specific period, there has been cases that's shown that even as short as a week has been sufficient to qualify for this. But ultimately, it's where you are living. If you are the victim you can file in the county that you're living in, and you can file where the perpetrator lives if they live in a different county from where you're living. Or where the incident happened, if the two of you were on vacation in some other place that neither of you live, then you can file in that county as well. Miami-Dade County domestic violence intake units. There's the Lawson Courthouse center in downtown Miami. There's the Hialeah Courthouse. The South Dade Justice Center, in Cutler Bay. The North Dade Justice Center. And the Coordinated Victims Assistance Center, also known as CVAC. In addition to those, you can also file at the Dade Legal Aid offices. And we have offices in downtown Miami, next door to the Courthouse Center. We have an office in Naranja, Florida. We have an office in Hialeah. And we also have an office in the Main Courthouse Center. And each of those can file a restraining order for you as well. The Temporary Protection Order process. Well the first thing is you have the Intake Center. Now we've talked about places that you can file, so you're either at one of the courthouses, you're at CVAC, or you're at a Dade Legal Aid office. Any of those places will take an application from you, and go through the information with you, and ultimately they will meet with either a clerk, or if you're at legal aid it will be either an attorney or a paralegal. And they will go through the paperwork and fill out the necessary forms and petition to file for a restraining order. After the restraining order is completed and signed and notarized, that information, that package is taken to the court. It's filed with the clerks, and the judge takes it for a review. The judge looks at the petition, and is basically required to assume that if the facts in the petition were correct, would it be sufficient under the Statute to enter a temporary restraining order? Also the judge has to see and look for if they feel that there is an immediate and present danger. And if the judge finds those things, then the judge can, enter a temporary restraining order, and if the judge does not find those things, then the judge can deny the temporary restraining order. If the judge enters the temporary order, then there's a hearing set within 15 days. If the judge denies the temporary restraining order, then obviously there's no order in place. Now, the Temporary Protection Order process. Again, as we were talking, depending on the circumstances, the judge may enter the temporary order. The judge answers that temporary order when the judge sets it for a hearing. This is the initial hearing, it is set within 15 days. And it's set for 15 minutes. It's a very short period of time to go through the information, but initially that's what it's set for, when we get to that hearing and we talk about that a little bit more later, but if the judge sees that this is something that may take more than that 15 minutes, then it's possible then that that hearing will get reset and set for a longer period of time. But initially, there's a hearing that is set for 15 minutes within 15 days. If the judge denies the temporary, they have two choices, they can deny it with a hearing or without a hearing. If they deny it with a hearing, then the petitioner has an opportunity to explain, perhaps in a little bit more in detail, the information that was in the petition and to clarify facts from the petition. Even on a deny, the judge still has the opportunity and the ability to enter a restraining order at that later time. Now, if the temporary restraining order is denied, it would also be denied without a hearing. If the petitioner is concerned that by filing the restraining order, it's going to make things worse for them, which is most often the case. Then it is an option for the petitioner to make the denial without a hearing, and in this way, the abuser is not given notice, is not notified that the petitioner had filed this restraining order. Any time the victim files for an order of protection, that immediately elevates the level of danger against the abuser because now they're taking steps against this abuser that may be new and different. And these are things that every victim needs to think about and be aware of. So that may be a reason why if it's denied, you may not want to have a hearing. Question two. Under Florida law, can you ask that your address remain confidential when applying for a temporary protection order? Yes or no? Yes you can. You can ask for your address to remain confidential. This way it does not come out on any of the paperwork that would go to the respondent with the restraining order. It would not be published on the court docket. And it would keep the respondent from having immediate access to that information. If you want your address to be confidential, there is a form that can be filed with the petition that asks for it to be confidential immediately, or, if at some point later on in the process, you decide that you want to change your address with the court, you can also have your new address kept confidential. Alright, so what does a temporary restraining order look like? Well here's the first page of a temporary injunction, and there are several pieces to this that are important, and things that you need to know and check and be aware of. First of all, if you look on the left-hand side near the top there where it says victim, and then it says perpetrator. Well normally that would have the victim's name and the perpetrator's name and place. Over to the right, also along the dot is the case number. And little bit down from that is the date it was issued and the date it expires. Now as you look down towards the center of the page, you have the March 13th date there, that is the hearing date, and the hearing time. So those are important as well, you need to make sure that you know when your hearing date and your time is. Also, it is possible that you could get a different expiration date from your hearing date. The reason they do that from time to time, is if for some reason the hearing does not go forward on the hearing date, it gives the courts a couple more days to reissue the petition or the restraining order, so that there's no lapse in coverage. As we go a little bit further down the page, you'll see that it lists the judge, in this case the honorable Michaelle Gonzalez Paulson, it also shows the courthouse with the address, and the courtroom number, that it will be taking place. So these are all important pieces of information that you'll need to know, this tells you where to go and when to be there. And what judge you're going to be in front of. Something else that is done with the initial restraining order. And this is when there are children of the relationship. The court will put in a temporary parenting plan. So the initial filing would have the temporary parenting plan set at 100% for one party or the other. In this case it was the petitioner. But it depends, often, on who has the children at the time of filing, who's filing, and what the circumstances are. Temporary time sharing will be discussed at the hearing, when you have a hearing. And at that time then it can be discussed further of whether it should be supervised or unsupervised. And we'll talk about that a little bit more later but ultimately if you're asking it to be supervised then you have some supporting reasons for that. But just that in the initial restraining order, the court will give one person 100% of the time sharing. That means the other person will have no contact with the children, at least until further order of court, which usually happens at the hearing, whether it's the first time up or if for some reason it's continuing we'll talk about that a little more. After obtaining a temporary order, now what do you need to think about? Well, safety planning is always important. We already mentioned that this can be one most dangerous times for a victim. This is the time that you filed and, at some point, were expecting that the respondent/perpetrator is going to be served with the paperwork. So now he's going to know that you've filed a restraining order against him, that you're taking steps to separate yourself from him and to basically move on. So a safety plan. You always need to be alert and observant of your surroundings, you need to keep a copy of your restraining order with you, and if you see the respondent around you're gonna wanna call the police. Now these are just a couple of basic safety planning items, we're gonna go into a little bit more as we go. Some that are a little bit more related to what happens in the courthouse. Some that are a little bit more related after the hearing. But just from the initial time, you just wanna be very careful, you wanna be alert, and you're going to not hesitate to call the police if your respondent comes around. Service of the temporary order is done by the sheriff. So once you file this packet, it goes to the clerk, the judge signs this temporary order, now that, with the petition, is sent to the sheriff's department to be served on the respondent/perpetrator. The respondent/perpetrator must be personally served by the sheriff, and again we'll talk about that a little bit more later but it's a sheriff or a uniformed officer or basically a police officer. The sheriff will attempt to serve the respondent many times, sometimes the respondents will not be at the location or they will avoid the service. But they will go many times and try to get this person served. And ultimately you have 120 days, approximately four months, to have this respondent served with this paper. During this time, what else do you wanna do? You wanna make sure you preserve evidence. Preserving evidence means saving pictures, text messages, emails, worn items of clothing, broken items, including phones. Printing out these things as well, so that you have them for court and so that they don't somehow get destroyed or get deleted. Again, this is one of the most dangerous times, so we need to be alert and aware and make sure that you keep yourself safe. So, you have your temporary restraining order. You know when your court date is. You know who your judge is, you know what courthouse you're going to be at. We've gone over that already, it's on the first page, we've talked about that. So, you show up at your court hearing, well what do you do when you get there? You'll need to check in, and oftentimes there will be a bailiff at a podium out in front of the courtroom. That will take your information, they'll ask your name, sometimes they'll ask for your paperwork. And they will go ahead and check you in as being present. That time they will give you instructions on where they want you to wait. Sometimes they will have you wait inside the courtroom, sometimes they will have you wait outside of the courtroom in the lobby area. This is where some more safety planning comes into play. First of all, getting to the courthouse, you need to be careful. This is now a time that the perpetrator knows where you are, where you're going to be, what time you're supposed to be there. They could be waiting for you, outside of the courthouse or on your way there. So again, you need to be alert and aware of your surroundings. And certainly if they do anything that makes you feel that you are in danger or fear for your safety you need to be calling the police. If once you're inside the courthouse, if the bailiff has you wait in the lobby area. Separate yourself away from the respondent, from the perpetrator. You don't need to talk to him, and you don't need to sit next to him. If he comes over to you, he could be violating the restraining order. You don't need to be in a position where he can see you or where he's looking at you or trying to intimidate you. And if he's doing any of these things then you're gonna want to go back to the bailiff and let the bailiff know, and the bailiff will either address it with him, with the judge, or may offer you some other solution, perhaps coming into the courtroom or going into another room where the respondent won't have access to. After the hearing, and we'll talk about that a little bit more, but when you're leaving, it's the same situation. You are there, the respondent is there, he knows where you are, you need to be very careful as you're leaving. Most courts will give you an opportunity to leave before the respondent. But either way, you need to be careful in that, and we'll talk about that a little bit more. You're going to bring your evidence. We spoke a little bit ago about preserving the evidence. So now is when you're going to produce that evidence. You're going to have it with you, ready for the judge to see it. Of course if it's printed out on paper that's often the best way. But if it's still in a phone or some other medium like that, the judge can often look at it. As you go through the proceeding, you'll be able to tell the judge what evidence you have, and you can offer it to the judge for the judge to look at. These proceedings are recorded. They do that so that, number one, if there is something about the proceeding that's done incorrectly, you always have the option to appeal. And secondly, if the perpetrator was arrested, then with these recordings proceeded, if the perpetrator testifies, then there may be information in that recording that could be used against the perpetrator in the criminal case. So those are the two most common reasons for the recording, but ultimately it's to protect the parties so that there's a recording, there is a record of these proceedings and what happens in them. So, now it's time for your final hearing, on the order of protection. Well, what if the perpetrator is not served, and it says, what if the perpetrator was served or not served? So what if the perpetrator is not served? If the perpetrator is not served, there will be no hearing on this day. But what does that mean? Well, your temporary protection, your temporary protection order will be extended, and the hearing date will be reset to another day. And the paperwork will go out once again to the sheriff's department for them to try to have the perpetrator served. If the perpetrator has been served, then the hearing will go forward. The judge sets the rules. That means the judge may tell you that they want no outbursts in court. That each side will get their turn. That each side needs to sit and wait until the other side is done talking. The judge will determine where the parties are going to sit for their testimony and for the hearing. The judge sets the rules. So, the petitioner/victim usually goes first. Okay? And this is the process now where they get to talk about the things that've happened to them the things that are in the petition that they filed. And they'll have the opportunity to add details, to provide their evidence, and to go through each of the incidents that are listed in the petition. So the judge can hear from them and better understand how these things happened. The normal process is, after the victim/petitioner goes through their information, that the respondent or respondent's attorney has the opportunity to cross-examine them. That means that the respondent or the respondent's attorney can then ask questions about the information that's in that petition. Or about anything else that may be valuable to the court in making a decision on this case. So the petitioner/victim goes first, they give their testimony, and then they can be cross-examined. After the petitioner/victim is finished with their portion, if they have any additional witnesses then they're welcome to call their witnesses. Witnesses go through the same process, where they'll give their testimony, they can testify to things that they have seen or heard or that are relevant to this case. When they're done testifying, then again they can be cross-examined. And when they're finished, then they move on to either the next witness, or if the petitioner has completed their side of the case, then it moves to the respondent. And the respondent has the opportunity to present their information. The process for the respondent is very much the same. The respondent/perpetrator will be able to give their version of the events. They can also offer other information that they feel would be important to the court in making a decision. And they can tell the court how the things happened or what they wanna say as part of that. After they finish their testimony about those things, then they will will be cross-examined or can be cross-examined as well. Either by the petitioner or the petitioner's attorney. After the respondent has finished with their testimony then they can call witnesses as well. Witnesses go through the same process, they give their testimony, then they can be cross-examined. After hearing from the parties, the judge will decide the case. So what does this mean? Well, there's basically three possible outcomes. You have the final protection order, okay, and time specific, we'll talk about that, because there's a couple different ways that that can go. You could have a temporary protection order. Or you could have a dismissal of the action. So under final protection orders, and there's different names for this also, it's a final protection order, it's a final order of protection, it's a final judgment, okay? Now this can range in time from something relatively short, to as long as indefinite or forever. And this is up to the judge. The judge decides based on the nature of the relationship, the amount of time that the parties have known each other, the level of violence that the judge feels that there's been in this situation. And, basically then makes a decision of how long this restraining order is going to be. If for some reason the judge does not want to enter a final order of protection, the judge may enter a temporary protection order. Ultimately, the temporary protection order is going to be limited in time. Not usually to be indefinite. And, has less harsh consequences, for the perpetrator. The protections for the victim are basically the same. And we're gonna talk about protections in a minute, as far as what the specifics on that are, but, a temporary protection order for the perpetrator does not show as a final judgment on their record, and therefore doesn't quite carry as many negative consequences as a final order of protection. The temporary protection or final order of protection shows on the person's record no matter what, it's just what the decision that was made reflects. And then the third option here is dismissal of the action. If for some reason the judge does not feel that these incidents rise to the level of the Statutes, it's not sufficient, there's not enough, the judge may believe that things happened, but it's not enough under the Statute to enter a restraining order. Or if the judge just doesn't believe these things happened, or thinks that there's some ulterior motive, then the judge can dismiss the action. When the judge dismisses the action, the case is over, there's no restraining order extended. For now it's done. Question three. On my hearing date, if there's no service by the sheriff, I can still have my hearing. True or false? That would be false. Respondent must be served in order to have the hearing. If he's not served, then it's reset for approximately 15 days, the temporary order is extended, and a new court date is set. If the person is served, and does not show up, yes you can have a hearing. Without that person being there, the judge will listen to one side, the victim/petitioner. And will make a decision on that testimony only. But if there's no service, the judge cannot have a hearing. So, you've gone through the hearing, and the judge enters this restraining order, this order of protection. So what does that cover, what does that do for you? Well, we talked about having your address kept confidential. So, you either filed that initially with your petition, or, if you change your address, you can have it kept confidential at that time, and what that means is your address does not come out on the final order of protection. The protection order directs the respondent to stay away from you. The standard provisions in the state of Florida is 500 feet from your home, your work, your school, and any address that you have specifically listed. It directs the respondent to stay away from your vehicle. Again, the provisions are that they are to stay 100 feet away from your vehicle. The abuser cannot have any contact with you. And that includes, of course, person-to-person, face-to-face, but also, text messages, emails, social media, or third-party contact. The protection order will provide timesharing of the minor children of the relationship. And then it also provides for temporary child support. Now, timesharing of the minor children of the relationship. This is the part, again, where you can ask for it to be supervised, or it can be unsupervised, and this really depends on how the perpetrator's relationship is with the children. If you are concerned that the children will be in danger, you can ask for it to be supervised timeshare. However, in order to get supervised timeshare, there must be some very specific things that make the judge concerned. For example, if the perpetrator has been abusive to the children, if the perpetrator has been irresponsible around the children, and that would be things like if they are using drugs or drinking alcohol in excess, and it affects their ability to take care of the children. And, sometimes if the violence has occurred to the victim in front of the children. So these are three basic examples of what may allow you to get supervised timeshare. Otherwise, it would be unsupervised and the schedule then would be set of when the child would be picked up and dropped off and where that would take place. And this would be set up in a way that the victim and the perpetrator would have no contact with each other. So for example, it's often done through a third party. The temporary child support is done through the guidelines in the state of Florida, and incorporated into the order, there's a short form that's usually filled out, where you list your income. And then those numbers are calculated out and added to this protection order. Additional protection order provisions. Temporary exclusive use of a shared residence. What does that mean? That means if the parties are living together, in an apartment for example, or a home, that the victim may be given temporary exclusive use of that residence, meaning the perpetrator will not be allowed to come back there. This temporary exclusive use is regardless of who has the title, or whose name it's in. It can still be awarded to the victim on a temporary basis. The protection order requires the respondent to surrender firearms. During the time that this restraining order is in place the respondent cannot own or possess any firearms or ammunition. If they have them in their possession they're required to surrender them to the police department and they have to get a receipt for that that they provide to the court. The respondent can be ordered to return documents. That would include things like passports, identifications, licenses, residency, birth certificates. The respondent may be ordered to go to a Batterers Intervention Program. That's something similar to an anger management program, basically it gives them instruction and teaches them how to deal with anger, what the proper outlets are, and certainly shows them what are improper behaviors as well. The respondent may be ordered to go to a parenting class, to teach them how to better understand their children, how to be a better parent. They also may be instructed to go to drug or alcohol testing and treatment if necessary. So if throughout the testimony the judge feels that there's an issue with drugs or alcohol, then they can order this perpetrator to go to a substance abuse treatment course. They can also order a psychological evaluation. And treatment if necessary. So the perpetrator will be ordered to go to evaluation, to find out if there are psychological issues, and if they find that there are, then they will enter them into a treatment program. This can all be included as part of this order or protection. Common questions after the entry of the order of protection. What happens if there are violations of the protection order? Well the first thing you wanna do is you wanna call the police. And even with that, you'd like to be very specific on what you do when you call the police. If the person is near you, or you see the person within the 500 feet, then you wanna dial 911. You wanna tell the police that you have a restraining order and the person is there now. You may not want to go into details immediately of who this person is or what they are to you. Sometimes those things don't make as much sense to a 911 operator. You need to tell them, I have a restraining order, the person is here now. You'll wanna report these to the police, if it's indirect contact, you'll take an email, a text message, whatever this other type of communication is, you might wanna screenshot it, take a picture of it, and then you'll go to the police department and file a police report. At that time, the police will often give you some idea of whether they're going to do something with the case, if they're going to go forward, if not, then, you can go directly to the State Attorney's office. And you can file what's called an affidavit of violation of the order. After you do that affidavit, then that information is forwarded to a department that handles those and there may even be an attorney that contacts you to go over the information a little bit more, that will then work through the police and the State Attorney's office in order to try to get some relief for that violation. And finally, if you had an order of protection that was anything less than indefinite, you may be able to ask for that order to be extended. If it was a temporary protection order in place, you could ask for it to be made a final order of protection. And if it's something for some period of time, you can ask for it to be extended longer. What happens if I don't want the protection order anymore? Well, a petitioner can dismiss their order, by filing a motion with the court. But, once you've had a hearing, the court has jurisdiction, and what you have to show is that there's been a substantial change in circumstances. This actually goes for both parties and we'll talk about the respondent side in a minute, but, you have to show that there's a substantial change of circumstances. Well, what does that mean? Well, for some reason, perhaps you are not concerned for your safety anymore. Then you can file a motion, you will have a hearing, the court will bring you in and the judge will want to speak to you. And ask you, and just verify that you are doing this freely and voluntarily. That you're not being forced or coerced into this decision in any way, and the judge may ask you if you're still afraid. Safety planning. So now you have your protection order, how is safety planning different than what we've already talked about? Well you're going to want to keep a copy of that order with you at all times. You can make photocopies of it, you can keep one in your car, you can keep one at your work. You can give one to the children's school, you wanna have a copy of that order accessible at all times, so that if you need to call the police, you have a copy of the order handy. We've talked about keeping your address confidential. You may wanna change your phone number if the respondent was contacting you, knows your phone number, he may call you, you can change your phone number. You may wanna change passwords, on your computer, on your email, on your social media. The respondent may have access to these things whether you know for sure that he does or not. You may wanna change your phone itself, very oftentimes, perpetrators will upload tracking information into your phone, they'll have ways of checking and looking to see where you are, through your phone. And if you do that, you wanna start new with the apps that you download, you don't wanna re-download the same apps that you have up in the Cloud or through your Google services, you wanna create a new account and download the apps individually, download new ones. If you were to download the old apps that you had in your Google account, it is possible that the perpetrator went in, installed some sort of tracking information in those apps, and when you download it, it just re-downloads back into your new phone. You may wanna upgrade your social media settings. You want to, lock out the people that can look at your information, you wanna keep tabs on those things, make sure that you don't add people that you don't know. You may wanna set it so that your posts cannot be seen by everyone, and you may wanna be conscientious of your posts themselves. You may not wanna post where you are and what you're doing and who you're with. You may want to change computers. You could have a computer that's been compromised it's had spyware, something uploaded into it. And by using that, every time you get on it, then your perpetrator may be able to see what you're doing and what you're looking at. You can change the locks on your house. And in your photos in your phone, you can turn off your location settings Again, if you post pictures with location settings on it, it is possible that person could see where you are and where you've been. Now, you have protection orders that we've been talking about. There's also a criminal stay away order, which is something we haven't gone into. But the protection orders are done by the civil court, the stay away orders are done by the criminal court. Protection orders, we have that they're victim-driven, meaning it's the victim that files it against the perpetrator. The victim must appear for the hearing, and as we've talked about it could be issued for up to an indefinite amount of time. We've talked about other relief already, including timesharing, child support, other orders that can be placed on the perpetrator. You can request to modify or dismiss by the victim or the respondent at any time. And then enforcement is, by calling the police, and then hopefully a criminal case gets put in place and then there could be an arrest. That differs from criminal stay away orders in a number of... Order, a court is the one that puts the stay away order in place without the victim asking for it, so when the respondent is arrested the court will automatically put this stay away order in place. The victim does not have to appear for many of the hearings throughout the criminal process. And the stay away order ends when the criminal case ends, so if for some reason the criminal case is dismissed, then the stay away order is also dismissed. Stay away orders do not address timesharing, or child support, they do not address who can stay in the home, and enforcement of a stay away order, is often by additional charges and re-arrest. Question four. After a full hearing, Barbara obtained a final protection order against her husband David. Two weeks later, she called David and asked to see him. David came over. Did Barbara violate her order? Yes or no? No she did not, Barbara cannot violate that order. The order of protection is not against Barbara, it's against David. So Barbara did not violate it, now what David could do is David could use that as a substantial change of circumstances to have that order dismissed. But ultimately she did not violate her order.

- [Lecturer] Thank you Steven. And thank you for watching the Legal System 101 Training. If you have any questions about this presentation, please contact Legal Aid at any of these locations, which are the Main Office, South Dade Office, Courthouse Center, and Hialeah Office. And you can also visit our website at dadelegalaid.org. And please make sure to watch the other four trainings in our five-part series. We've also included some resources for domestic violence and sexual assault survivors. For domestic violence, there's the National Domestic Violence Hotline, 1-800-799-7233. At the state level you can call the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 800-500-1119. And our local center, CVAC, is 305-285-5900. For sexual assault survivors, we have the national hotline RAINN, which is Rape Abuse and Incest National Network, and their number is 800-656-4673. We have the Florida Coalition Against Sexual Violence, 888-956-7273. And MUJER, certified center, here in Miami-Dade County, is 305-763-2459, and thank you again for listening.