A restraining order or protective order is an order used by a court to protect a person or entity, and the general public, in a situation involving alleged domestic violence, harassment, stalking or sexual assault. In the United States, every state has some form of domestic violence restraining order law, and many states also have specific restraining order laws for stalking and sexual assault.

Restraining and personal protection order laws vary from one jurisdiction to another but all establish who can file for an order, what protection or relief a person can get from such an order, and how the order will be enforced. The court will ask the adverse party to refrain from doing certain actions and require certain tasks to be done. Failure to comply is a violation of the order, in which the victim can request that the police and/or the court to enforce the order more closely depending on the severity of the violation.

Restraining order provisions

All protective order statutes permit the court to instruct the abuser to stay a certain distance away from someone, their home, their workplace or their school ("stay away" provisions) and to not contact them. Victims generally may also request the court to order that all contact, whether it be by telephone, notes, mail, fax, email or delivery of flowers or gifts, be prohibited ("no contact" provisions). Courts can also instruct the abuser to not hurt or threaten someone ("cease abuse" provisions).

Restraining Order is a 1999 crime thriller film directed by Lee H. Katzin. It stars Eric Roberts and Hannes Jaenicke.

Plot

Robert Woodfield is a criminal defense attorney, and he has defended a lot of criminals, many of whom are guilty, but has maintained that everyone deserves a competent defense, which he provides whether they are guilty or not. Currently he is defending Martin Ritter, a killer, whom he gets off. Later he has dinner with a friend, and his friend tells him that he needs to talk to him about something important. He is about to leave when some masked men go to his friend and kill him; when one of the men takes off his mask, it's Martin Ritter. Now, being his lawyer, Robert can't say anything about what he saw. But that doesn't stop him from investigating what his dead friend was so worried about. It seems that he has stumbled onto something big, and instead of killing him they frame his wife for murder to get him to back off. But he doesn't and both his wife and he are now in danger. And he still has no idea what's going on. Will he find out before they get to him?