make all protective orders permanent

[rhi220595]

Hi, I am posting on here my petition to make all protective orders permanent. It is cruel that the onus falls on victims to prove to a court on a yearly basis that their protective order should be extended, and only implementing protective orders for one year does not encourage abusers to actively seek help to change their behaviors. It is also traumatic and frightening to the victim having to relive the horrors of their abuse and makes it difficult for victims to be able to feel safe and move on. I think the onus should now fall on the abusers to have to go through the stress of applying to court and standing up presenting evidence, to prove that their victim no longer needs protection for them and that they have changed their ways.
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/579026?fbclid=IwAR23K8-nU4rWxDVyu5uJGR2gnogL1tJvtpEZQr9Yp1mz6kNUwrLP5vtExXE
please sign and share the link if you are willing. I believe the victim shaming needs to end.

I agree the onus should be on the perpetrator to prove that the order is no longer needed and the bar should be set so high that it is almost impossible to do

Done

Thank you for sharing this. Very much agree with Cabinfevers comment above.

Done

Agree OP.

Thanks OP.

Signed

Signed

I do agree with you but would also say that one of the reasons they are not permanent is that they are so easy to get. I think if they were permanent they would be much harder to get and need a lot more evidence etc and I think that would be a mistake.

@Mygardenisnotperfect
Having had the misfortune of having to get a protective order I can assure you that they are ridiculously difficult to get already. It's not a simple as just asking for 1 you have to prove that you need 1 to a court at trial where it's normally a victim of dv and or stalking self representing against a qualified lawyer.
So I don't know where you get this idea that they are "so easy to get "

Hiya, I fully respect this view and actually I almost think the solution would be for a restraining order to not be on someones criminal record per se? I think the important thing is that these orders are meant to protect and not punish so we need it to have the power it has now to deter abusers from breaching them (e.g having a power of arrest), but not being seen as a punishment, so not needing to be disclosed or seen as a criminal record... I don't really know the solution there but, I have certainly never found them easy to obtain. They have required alot of time, effort and evidence as well as some terrifying court experiences... so I am not sure I would say they are particularly easy to obtain. But thank you for your opinion it is very valid and should the petition be successful I hope further thought is put into your point!!

Reading the thread it's not something I know about.

Was going to sign (and still will) but the point about maybe making them even harder to get is a good one.

There's a thing I think in rape cases where jurors are reluctant to find guilty and ruin his life (over a one off mistake blah blah). There was a debate around prosecting as something else as the jurors might find that less of a massive decision iyswim. The other view was it's watering down sex crime against women.

Both views had good points. Could this be similar? What about 5 years or something?

I'm totally ignorant on this topic so could be way off mark if so I'm sorry I hope I haven't said anything awful by accident.

Bump

Signed :)

@NiceGerbil Hiya, so actually a restraining order can be put in place by a court even if the accused is found not guilty, for example in a rape case or harassment case, the defendant may be found not guilty by the standards of evidence required by criminal court, but a judge can then still implement a restraining order for the victims protection anyway! This again I see as an example that it is meant to be protection and not punishment. Also the process is very different for a protective order in the family court and that would be applied for by the victim and not the police. But both still require some form of evidence that the one person is a potential threat to the other. So I do not fully know how this would appear on their criminal record.

Signed

Thank you all for signing! heres to hoping it catches some momentum!

Restraining Order ? Never heard of them outside of US movies and film. Maybe there are such named orders in the new DA bill.

Nice to see so many yanks here.

Oh they’re criminal court orders rather than family court ones ?

@sawdustformypony
Actually there are family court ones known as non molestation orders and just restraining orders... a restraining order can only be issued when someone is being brought to court for a criminal offence. Even if not found guilty for the criminal offence a restraining order can then be ordered by that judge! A non molestation order would be applied for by the victim in a family court. so two different types of order! Hope that helps clear it up abit? I didn't realise any of them were a real thing until I needed one!

I didn't know there was criminal stuff where the burden of proof was lower. That's more like on the balance of (and quite right too with the sort of things they're used for).

I suppose that is also why the every year review.

Can I ask another question? Say you get one and it's broken. Are the police that interested? I mean it probably depends on force etc. I've just read so many stories where a bloke (almost always a bloke) has a load of stuff and the woman reports and they aren't.

Also seen loads of threads on here with that sort of story.

In general one you've got one are they even enforced? If broken.

Or, is the thinking that a high % of time he'll stop as doesn't want to end up in court again Eric and the ones that don't well what can you do...?

Any feel for that?

No idea how Eric got in there sorry

@NiceGerbil
So in my own experience... it varies. It completely depends on the person you get. I had a non mol, the judge was amazing. The person my order was against breached that order numerous times... but I replied due to a clause in the order about contact being allowed to arrange contact for our child. This clause was abused, and i reported al the emails to the police, but I only did it in 2 chunks. I was lucky though, I had a good police officer who explained everything to me and the person the order was against was taken to court by the crown prosecution service and charged with breaching the non mol order, fined and a restraining order was put in place. This restraining order meant I couldn't extend my non mol as there was already a protective order in place (you see where im going with the whole this needs to just be a permanent thing?). This order has only been breached twice... but both times was reported straight to the police so again has been passed back to cps to prosecute.. I have been going back to court to extend this order yearly, except as it is not family court I don't get legal aid and not much knowledge is out their about restraining orders so have had to do it myself. even with these breaches my order is only being granted a 6 month extension now rather than a year. I have been very lucky.

Signed.

Signed