Things That You Don’t Know about Restraining Orders

We see a lot of cases where a business owner is being maliciously defamed online by someone who has a personal vendetta against them. The loss of revenues due to false reports about someone’s business certainly causes great emotional distress and entitles them in most cases to get an injunction preventing a respondent from continuing such an attack.

Most people don’t realize that in addition to preventing a perpetrator from continuing malicious information about an individual or the business, they may actually be directed to remove all prior posts. Restraining order judges in Broward County Florida have held in certain cases that an offender not only refrain from further malicious activity but also that they remove all prior posts directed against a petitioner. The argument is that prior posts through electronic means, such as social media, are effectively rebroadcasted and are in essence a violation of a court order restraining order. Judges have found that the respondent who fails to remove prior post within a reasonable period of time may be subject to criminal prosecution and incarceration.

Many restraining order cases involve situations where a spouse cut off all finances to their significant other and minor children. Even where an action has not been filed in Family Court such as divorce, restraining order judges have ordered that an income producing spouse provide finances to the family lest they be in violation and subject to criminal prosecution.

More information about restraining orders can be obtained by contacting attorney William Moore at (954) 523-5323.