Legal Question in Family Law in Washington
Can my husband get my order of protection overturned
I live in Washington State. I got a permanent domestic violence order of protection last month. My husband's attorney filed for a motion for reconsideration and it was denied. He has claimed he will get this order of protection overturned no matter what. He claims I lied to get it. A mutual friend of ours has an anti harassment order against him which he tried to get vacated. He was denied and was told it was unappealable. I am in constant fear that he will get it dismissed in some way. I heard he can have it redetermined by another judge. Is this true? He also has criminal stalking charges against him from stalking another mutual friend (the husband of the woman who has the anti-harassment order against him) Will I be able to use these other instances with these other people to show he harasses everyone? We are in the middle of a custody dispute, the day after I got the temporary order of protection he filed for a dissolution asking for custody of our children. Even though I filed for this before he filed for divorce he says I got the order of protection to make him look bad in the divorce. Please let me know I am really scared he will get it dropped and since he is really mad at me now I would have no protection.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Can my husband get my order of protection overturned
Please stop stressing over this.
The DV order is effective. Your ex can take it to the Court of Appeals, where the question is not the merits but whether or not the trial (lower)court correctly exercised its discretion in entering the order.
Appeals courts are loathe to overturn trial courts. They will do anything to keep the order and find that it is valid.
Your ex CANNOT have the order re-evaluated by another trial court, that is NOT true.
Where are the kids? Generally charmers like this love their children so much they want to wrestle them away from their mother and have the mother pay child support.
You need good counsel right now. If you don't all ready have an attorney, sell something, borrow the retainer from somebody and lawyer up. I cannot stress enough that this is not self help and you need the best counsel you can afford. Your life and the quality of your children's lives is at stake.
Also, please don't take legal advice from your ex. Consider getting some DV victim counseling so that you can re-arrange your priorities and your expectations and make better choices.
Do you want your kids living with him? No. So make sure that doesn't happen.
Elizabeth Powell
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