WORKPLACE VIOLENCE PREVENTION
What is a Restraining Order to Stop Workplace Violence?
A Restraining Order to Stop Workplace Violence is a court order to protect an employee, or employees from suffering unlawful violence or credible threats of violence at the workplace.
The court can order a person not to:- Harass or threaten the employee(s)
- Contact or go near the employee(s)
- Have a gun
The order can last up to three years and can also protect certain family or household members of the employee or employees at the employee’s workplace or at other workplaces of the employer.
Who Can Apply For a Restraining Order?
Employers can obtain court orders prohibiting unlawful violence or credible threats of violence against their employees. The petitioner (filing party) must be an employer.
Employees CANNOT ask for workplace violence protective orders. If they want to protect themselves, they can ask for a different type of protective order on their own, such as:
Domestic Violence Restraining Order: Can be used to ask for protection from people he or she was involved with romantically at some point or close family members.
Civil Harassment Restraining Order: Can be used for protection from neighbors, roommates, coworkers, or more distant family members like cousins, uncle or aunt, etc..
- Elder or Dependent Adult Abuse Restraining Order: Protects elders and dependent adults from physical and financial abuse, neglect, isolation, abduction, harm, or deprivation by a caregiver.
If you are the employee and you are not sure what kind of protective order you should get, talk to a lawyer. Also, the court’s Self-Help Center may be able to help you.
How Does an Employer Apply For a Restraining Order?
The instructions How Do I Get an Order to Prohibit Workplace Violence (WV-100-INFO)
contain step-by-step procedures.
IMPORTANT: If you are filing a Petition for more than one employee, you must complete a separate set of forms for each employee.
You must file your case at the Justice Center that has venue. Venue is determined by where the respondent (the person you are seeking an order against) resides or where the respondent caused physical or emotional injury to the petitioner’s employee(s). The General Information section of this website can provide you with the addresses of the court’s Justice Centers and the cities within their venue. For example if the employee suffered emotional injury in Anaheim, your case is filed at the North Justice Center in Fullerton. If the respondent resides in Huntington Beach, you could also file the case at the West Justice Center in Westminster.
Before filing the forms, you must give written or telephonic "notice" to the respondent of when and where you will be seeking a Temporary Restraining Order, or give the court a good reason why you could not give such notice. The form that you use for this is called "Declaration Re: Notice Temporary Restraining Order (L-0889)" and is included in the forms above.
If you are seeking orders based on information from your employee and others and not based on what you have personally observed, you must have each of those persons complete a declaration to attach to the Petition. You may use the form Attached Declaration (MC-031).
If the judge determines that the restrained person has used or threatened to use violence against you or has stalked you, you may not have to pay a filing fee.
- File the forms in the Civil Division Clerk’s Office.
- If you are not a governmental agency, there is a filing fee.
- Obtain conformed copies of the forms from the clerk.
Court hours are 8:00am-4:00pm, Monday-Friday. Final check-in at the Clerk’s Office is 4:00pm. All parties should appear in the Civil Division Clerk’s Office or Self-Help Center no later than 3:30pm to complete the paperwork. Note: the Self-Help Center closes at 3:00pm on Fridays. If the Self-Help Center is closed, the Clerk’s Office can assist you.
Steps to Take To Get a Restraining Order
provide the steps to take next. This includes:
- How to serve the respondent with the documents. For additional information, read What is "Proof of Personal Service"? (WV-200-INFO).
- Filing proof that the respondent has been served using the Proof of Personal Service (WV-200).
- You are entitled to free service by the Orange County Sheriff if the order is based on a credible threat of violence or stalking. Check to see if section 11 has been completed by the judge on the form "Temporary Restraining Order."Complete the Sheriff Instruction form (OCSD1). The clerk will forward the documents to the Sheriff upon request. If section 11 has not been checked, you may still request that the Sheriff service your documents for a fee
. You may also have someone not involved in the case serve the documents. You can also use a licensed process server. - Giving a copy of the Temporary Restraining Order to police.
- Information about the court hearing.
- Information about the Permanent Restraining Order.
Responding To a Petition For Order to Stop Workplace Violence
If you are served with a "Petition for Workplace Violence Restraining Order (WV-100)", "Notice of Court Hearing (WV-109)", and "Temporary Restraining Order (WV-110)", you should do the following:
Seek legal advice immediately. This website contains lawyer referral information.
Read the How Can I Respond to a Petition for Workplace Violence Restraining Orders? (WV-120-INFO)
.Obey the Restraining Order.
Review all of the documents that you were served with.
- If you want to fight the Petition, fill out a Response to Petition for Workplace Violence Restraining Orders (WV-120).
- Have someone other than yourself over the age of 18 give or mail a copy of your response to the employer or employer’s attorney,
- Have that person complete a Proof of Service of Response by Mail (WV-250),
- File the original Response and Proof of Personal Service with the court before the hearing date, and
- Pay a filing fee. If you cannot afford the filing fee, you can ask the court to waive the filing fee. You can read more about fee waivers.
Guns and Firearms
The judge may order that the restrained person not own, possess, buy or try to buy, receive or try to receive, or otherwise get a gun while a Restraining Order is in effect. If a restrained person violates this order, it can result in jail and/or $1,000.00 fine. The restrained person must sell to a licensed gun dealer or turn in to a law enforcement agency any guns or other firearms that he/she has or control in accordance with the order of the court. If the court makes this order, the restrained person must comply and then file Proof of Firearms Turned In or Sold (WV-800). If the restrained person does not obey the court order, he or she can be charged with a crime.