I'd like to talk to you about a phenomenon that I see more frequently in court than I would like, and that is the abuse of protective orders as a tool to shortcut custody litigation. This Is something that should never happen. Point blank. It should never happen.

Protective orders exist under the statute for a very specific reason. And that's to protect individuals from domestic violence, threats of domestic violence, harassment, and stalking. That is the purpose.

However, it's become a trend in Oklahoma courts, and this is a lot more common than anyone would be comfortable knowing, of people, and most of them, unfortunately, I'm sorry to say, and I hate to make this about, most of them are women going to court and alleging harassment or stalking, or some kind of threat as grounds to get a protective order, and getting it on themselves and the child, as a means to gain custody of the child in it, either because they're anticipating custody litigation, or because custody litigation is already going on.

Now, the reason why women do this, or the reason why this happens is that the protective order gives them several advantages.

First of all, when you file for a protective order, you get an immediate hearing that day on the petition, and assuming you can rewrite it reasonably enough that it meets the elements of the statute, a judge will enter an order temporarily, creating an emergency protective order.

And it's a relatively low burden of proof. I mean, we're talking about a preponderance standard, and in the case of the emergency, basically, if the allegations meet the statute, he's going to enter that emergency order immediately, and it's effective upon service.

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