What is a protection order?
The protection order is regulated under Law no. 217/2003 on the prevention and combating of domestic violence, being a means created by the legislator with the aim of effectively and directly protecting victims of domestic violence. Moreover, according to the latest legislative amendment, at present, the protection order can be obtained for any type of violence, regardless of the nature of the relationship between the partners, without requiring the existence of a family relationship between the persons concerned.
Within the meaning of the aforementioned law, domestic violence involves any intentional action or inaction of "physical, sexual, psychological, economic, social, spiritual or cyber violence, which occurs in the family or domestic environment or between spouses or former spouses, as well as between current or former partners, regardless of whether the aggressor lives or has lived with the victim". Therefore, the legislator intends to include in the scope of domestic violence both non-compliant acts of a verbal nature (threats, insults), physical (hitting, injuries), psychological (provoking a state of fear, constraints of any kind), sexual (harassment, manipulation), economic (depriving a person of the goods necessary to ensure daily living), social (imposing isolation, deprivation of identity documents), cybernetic (online harassment), as well as acts of a spiritual nature (prohibiting the right to speak in one's native language, underestimating a person's moral and spiritual needs).
Any person who finds themselves in one of the above situations, in order to remove the state of danger, has the possibility of issuing a protection order by which a series of measures (obligations or prohibitions) are ordered to ensure the well-being and safety of the victim. Therefore, the respective protection order is an exceptional and temporary measure through which the competent court restricts a series of rights of the aggressor, in order to protect the victim of abuse.
How many types of protection orders can there be?
The protection order can be provisional, issued by the Police (for a maximum duration of 5 days) or definitive, issued by a court decision, the maximum duration provided by law in this case being 12 months. Once issued and remaining definitive, the protection order must be respected by both the victim and the aggressor, its violation constituting a crime and punishable by imprisonment from 6 months to 5 years.
When is the protection order issued?
The court will thus analyze, based on the evidence in the case file and the procedural position of the parties, the existence or non-existence of aggressions, respectively of the state of danger, subsequently ordering the issuance (or not) of the protection order. In this regard, for the most favorable solution, the victim of abuse must submit to the court a series of conclusive, complex evidence, from which it can be unequivocally concluded that the acts of violence that she invokes were inflicted on her (for example, the evidence could consist of messages certifying the existence of violence, images, audio-video recordings, witness statements, etc.).
Based on the provisions Law No. 217/2003, there are also a series of admissibility conditions that must be met in order for a possible protection order to be susceptible, such as the existence of a serious, current and imminent danger, a danger which, as we have previously stated, must be demonstrated with the help of solid evidence.
Do you need a lawyer before the court in a case regarding the issuance of a protection order?
As these are urgent cases, their resolution being limited by law to 72 hours, it is important to know from the beginning in detail all the steps that must be followed in such situations, whether you are the victim of aggression or the aggressor.
Therefore, in such situations, prior legal advice, namely representation/assistance before the court by a lawyer, is an essential aspect that should be taken into account, as a specialist in the field has the ability to clearly present your point of view to the judge, argued and accompanied, of course, by the related legal texts, but also to ensure that all necessary evidence will be proposed and administered in the case.
We invite you to contact us with confidence using contact details on the website so that your interests are properly protected in court and beyond.
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