Pennsylvania Restraining Orders

Restraining Order, Order of Protection, or PFA? What Pennsylvania Calls It

People search for a restraining order, an order of protection, a stay-away order, or an injunction for protection. In Pennsylvania courts, all of those describe one civil filing: a Protection From Abuse order.

The label matters only because the paperwork uses the statutory name. A Lancaster County judge will not turn you away for using the wrong word, but knowing the right one makes the forms and the hearing notice easier to follow.

Which Protection Order Fits Your Situation

Pennsylvania has three civil protection orders, and the right one depends on your relationship to the person you need protection from. Filing under the wrong statute costs you time you may not have.

• Protection From Abuse (PFA) order. For abuse by a family or household member, a current or former sexual or intimate partner, or someone you share a child with. This is the domestic violence restraining order most people are looking for.
• Sexual Violence Protection Order (SVPO). For victims of sexual violence where no qualifying family or dating relationship exists, including assaults by an acquaintance, a coworker, or a stranger.^[2]
• Protection From Intimidation (PFI) order. For harassment or stalking committed by an adult 18 or older against a person under 18, where the two are not family or household members.^[2]

A criminal no-contact condition is a fourth possibility, but you do not file for it. A judge imposes it as a bail or sentencing condition in a criminal case, and it ends when that case ends. A protection order is yours and it survives on its own terms.

Who Can File for a PFA in Pennsylvania

The relationship between you and the defendant is the first thing you have to establish, and the first thing a defense lawyer attacks. The Act covers spouses and former spouses, parents and children, and other relatives by blood or marriage. It also covers people who live or lived as spouses, current or former sexual or intimate partners, and people who share biological parenthood.^[3]

Dating relationships count, and so do relationships that ended years ago. A dispute with a neighbor, a coworker, or an unrelated roommate does not qualify, which is where the sexual violence and intimidation orders come in.

An adult or an emancipated minor may file for themselves. A parent, an adult household member, or a guardian ad litem may file on behalf of minor children. The guardian of an adult declared incompetent may file for that adult.^[4]

You are not charged any fee or cost to file a PFA petition, to have it issued or registered, or to have it served. That protection also covers filing a motion for reconsideration or an appeal.^[4]

What Counts as Abuse Under the Act

A judge cannot grant a PFA because someone treated you badly. The conduct has to fit one of five statutory categories, and the petition should be built around whichever one your facts actually support.^[3]

• Bodily injury or listed sexual offenses. Causing or attempting to cause bodily injury or serious bodily injury, or committing one of the sexual offenses named in the statute, with or without a weapon.
• Reasonable fear of imminent serious bodily injury. Conduct that puts you in reasonable fear of serious harm about to happen.
• False imprisonment. Restraining you against your will as the criminal code defines it.
• Abuse of a minor child. Physically or sexually abusing minor children.
• A course of conduct. Knowingly engaging in repeated acts toward you, including following you without proper authority, that place you in reasonable fear of bodily injury.

Financial control, verbal cruelty, and emotional manipulation are real, and they are often the backdrop of a case. On their own they usually do not meet a statutory category. Where they matter is as context that makes the qualifying conduct credible.

How to File for a PFA in Lancaster County

Lancaster County takes PFA petitions Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., at the Bail Administration Office on North Duke Street. You can also file with an attorney, or with advocate assistance from the Domestic Violence Legal Clinic (DVLC).^[5] Plan for the day, because the county describes this as a lengthy process that can take several hours.

1. Go to the Bail Administration Office. Staff will help you fill out the petition and order for protection from abuse, but they cannot give legal advice. Confirm current hours with the county before you go.^[5]
2. Write the incidents out with dates. The petition is your sworn statement of what happened. Specific dates, locations, injuries, threats, witnesses, and any police contact carry far more weight than general descriptions.
3. Ask for the relief you need. Some relief depends on you requesting it, and the statute’s catch-all provision is expressly limited to other relief sought by the plaintiff.^[6] Decide before you file whether you need the defendant out of the home, temporary custody terms, or firearms relinquishment.
4. Go before the judge. A judge reviews the petition without the defendant present. A temporary order can issue the same day on a finding of immediate and present danger of abuse to you or your minor children.^[1]
5. The Sheriff serves the defendant. The Sheriff serves the petition, the temporary order, and the hearing notice, then notifies you once service has been made.
6. Prepare for the final hearing. Before you leave, you receive two copies of your order, and the petition is filed with the Prothonotary.^[5] The hearing is set within ten business days. Gather your messages, photographs, medical records, and witnesses now.^[1]

If You Need Protection Before the Courthouse Opens

The standard path assumes the courthouse is open. When it is closed, a magisterial district judge can grant limited emergency relief in an ex parte proceeding, and that order lasts only until the court is available again.^[7]

An emergency order is a bridge to the courthouse, not a substitute for filing there. Our page on emergency protective orders covers the after-hours route in full.

Service, the Hearing Date, and How Long Orders Last

A protection order takes effect when the court enters it. Enforcement through arrest or contempt turns on the defendant having notice of the order, which is why the Sheriff tells you once service is complete.

The three order types are stages of one case, not three separate cases, and each lasts a different length of time.

• Emergency order. Issued by a magisterial district judge when the Court of Common Pleas is closed. It expires when the court is available again.^[7]
• Temporary order. Entered without the defendant present. It stays in effect until the court modifies or terminates it after notice and a hearing. It is not a finding that abuse happened.^[1]
• Final order. Entered after the hearing or through a court-approved consent agreement, for a fixed period up to three years.^[6]

If the defendant was served less than three business days before the hearing, the court must grant a short continuance on request.^[1] Expect that possibility rather than being surprised by it.

At the hearing, the plaintiff must prove the allegation of abuse by a preponderance of the evidence.^[1]Your own testimony can be legally sufficient without independent corroboration if the judge finds it credible, though messages, photographs, records, and witnesses all help.^[8]

What a Judge Can Order

A final PFA reaches most of the daily contact between two people, and the terms vary from case to case. What you receive depends on the evidence and on what you asked the court for.^[6]

• No abuse and no contact. Direct and indirect contact can be barred, including at your home, workplace, or school, and the order can extend to your relatives and your children.
• Exclusive possession of the residence. Where the home is jointly owned or leased, or is yours alone, the court can evict the defendant or restore possession to you. Where the defendant is the sole owner or lessee, exclusion is available where the defendant has a duty to support you or children living there. No PFA changes the title to real property.^[6]
• Temporary custody and visitation terms. The court weighs the risk the defendant poses to the children and to you. On findings of abuse or risk, it can require that custodial access be supervised by a third party, or deny custodial access outright.
• Financial relief. Temporary support, plus payment of losses caused by the abuse such as medical, dental, relocation, and moving expenses, counseling, lost earnings, and property damage. Reasonable attorney fees may also be ordered.
• Firearms relinquishment. The defendant can be prohibited from acquiring or possessing firearms for the duration of the order and ordered to relinquish firearms, listed weapons, ammunition, and firearm licenses.
• Protection for a pet. The court can grant temporary ownership rights over a companion animal and bar the defendant from possessing, contacting, or relocating it.

Some terms are not optional. A final order entered after a hearing must direct the defendant to refrain from abusing, harassing, stalking, or threatening you or your minor children, and must impose the firearms prohibition. Those same terms are permissive rather than mandatory in a court-approved consent agreement.^[6]

 If You Were Served With a Petition

This page is written for the person seeking protection, but both sides land in the same courtroom. If you were served, here is the process in neutral terms.

Every restriction in the temporary order is enforceable once you have notice of it, and it stays that way until a judge changes it. The plaintiff still has to prove abuse at the hearing, so a temporary order is not a finding against you.

You have the right to be represented by counsel at that hearing, though the court does not appoint a lawyer for the civil PFA case itself.^[1] You may testify, call witnesses, and cross-examine. Failing to appear does not make the case go away.

After the Order: Violations, Changes, and Extensions

A PFA is a civil order, but breaking it creates criminal exposure. Police may arrest on probable cause alone,^[9] and indirect criminal contempt carries a fine of $300 to $1,000 plus up to six months in jail or probation.^[10]The order cannot be cancelled privately, and inviting contact does not undo it.

Either party can petition to amend an order at any time, and it stays fully enforceable until a judge rules.^[6] Extensions require a filed petition, notice, and a hearing, and there is no limit on how many a court may grant.^[6]

How Lancaster Law Group Can Help

Our office sits across the street from the Lancaster County Courthouse where your hearing will happen. We are in those courtrooms constantly, and we prepare clients for the room they will actually walk into.

We build the petition around the statutory categories, organize the evidence and witnesses that prove abuse, then argue for the relief that actually makes you safer. Our main page on Protection From Abuse orders covers the full range of that work.

Founding attorney Joseph P. McMahon is a former assistant district attorney, known for being thorough, knowledgeable, and aggressive. Partner Shawnee S. Burton is a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.  Our team of Lancaster family law attorneys handles the hearing itself and the contempt exposure that can follow a violation.

A Firm Commitment to Trust means both halves of the job. We fight zealously at the hearing, and we explain every step in a way you can understand, so you always know what happens next.