5 Types of Injunctions and What They Mean
If you are seeking an injunction or restraining order in the state of Florida, we recognize 5 different types including:
Domestic Violence Injunction
One of the most common types of injunctions is domestic violence injunctions. Oftentimes, domestic violence is a family member or somebody who lives in the household that has committed an act of violence upon the person seeking the injunction. The Florida statutes define violence not just as a battery, it could include assault, stalking, or kidnapping as forms of violence. If there is someone that lives in your household or is a family member that has committed an act of violence against you and you to have a reasonable fear that there is an imminent threat of danger by them, you can seek an injunction from the clerk at the city court.Depending on which county you are in, you can go down and fill out a packet, which is free to you. Usually what happens is the same day you fill out the packet, the clerk will hand it off to the duty judge. On any given day, the court has a duty judge who reviews all the petitions and determines whether or not they are legally sufficient for an injunction to be granted temporarily. If you fill out your petition and the duty judge agrees that your case is legally sufficient, a temporary injunction will be issued and is transferred to the sheriff to serve on the respondent (the person you are trying to take the injunction out against).The statute then states that you have 14 days to bring the case back in front of the judge for a return hearing. At the return hearing, the judge will hear testimony and evidence to determine whether or not a permanent injunction can be granted. A permanent injunction could be held anywhere between 6 months, a year, 3 years, or permanently.
Repeat Violence Injunctions
Repeat violence injunctions are where the perpetrator isn’t a family member or doesn’t live in your household and there have been at least 2 acts of violence, most recent of which is within the past 6 months. This could be a neighbor, someone from school, a coworker, or anyone that has repeatedly committed acts of violence upon you.
Dating violence injunction
Dating violence injunctions, according to the Florida statutes, means violence between individuals who have or have had a continuing and significant relationship of a romantic or intimate nature. The existence of such a relationship shall be determined based on the consideration of the following factors:
1. A dating relationship must have existed within the past 6 months;
2. The nature of the relationship must have been characterized by the expectation of affection or sexual involvement between the parties; and
3. The frequency and type of interaction between the persons involved in the relationship must have included that the persons have been involved over time and on a continuous basis during the course of the relationship.
Sexual violence injunction
Sexual violence injunction is as it states. If you have been the victim of any sort of sexual violence, it doesn’t matter how recent, how many times it has happened, or if the perpetrator lives in your house or not.
Stalking Injunctions
With the rise of social media and accessibility to technology, there has been an increase in stalking injunctions. Stalking injunctions are typically more nuanced. For stalking injunctions you must prove one of the following:
Following you - If someone has been repeatedly following you could be a basis for a stalking injunction.
Cyberstalking - If someone is using text messages, social media, email, or any electronic means to repeatedly interfere with you could be a basis for a stalking injunction.
Harassment - There must be a course of conduct which is willful, repeated, malicious, and serves no legitimate purpose or causes substantial emotional distress.
Oftentimes harassment comes up in family law practice whether there is a spouse that is estranged or they have been divorced and are still involved in a back and forth with each other. This could be whether they are not happy with how the other parent is dealing with their children or maybe the spouse is now with a new partner and somehow interferes with the ex-spouse. For an injunction, this has to prove that there is no legitimate purpose for the harassment and that it causes substantial emotional distress. It has to be shown that there is true emotional distress in the situation, whether that includes therapy, or it has manifested itself psychologically or physically in some fashion.
When dealing with these 5 different types of injunctions in Florida, usually, where Busciglio, Sheridan & Schoeb comes in, could be one of 2 ways. Oftentimes an individual will come in and say “I have had an injunction filed against me, can you defend me” or the other will say “someone has been bothering me or has committed an act of violence upon me, I would like to take out an injunction against them”. In those circumstances what we oftentimes do is invite the client to come in and help draft what we call a “narrative” or the story/ reason for filing the injunction. They will then take that down to the clerk and if the injunction is granted, at that point we will come in and represent the party seeking the injunction.
If you are someone you know is seeking help in filing or defending injunctions, call Busciglio & Sheridan Law Group at (813) 225-2695 today and talk to Josh Sheridan for more information on how we can help your case.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for more information on family law situations.