Orlando Injunction Attorney

What Is An Injunction?

An injunction is a restraining order.  If you need protection from a person, you can file an injunction against them for free.  If you need to defend against an injunction because you have been accused, you can also go to court for free.  Whichever side you are on in an injunction, you should get (or at least consult with) an experienced Orlando injunction lawyer first.  You will be glad you did.  It’s too easy to just put into Google “injunction attorney near me” and ask for a free consultation. You don’t have anything to lose and you may learn a lot!

Here are the basics on how injunctions work here in Florida:

Injunctions are designed to provide a rapid means of protection for individuals free of charge within our court system.  A restraining order (or injunction) is a court order that prevents someone from doing something to or coming into contact with another person.

Petitioner = the person seeking protection from the court.

Respondent = the person who allegedly committed (or threatened to commit) violence.

The petitioner files an injunction with the court against the respondent.  There is no filing fee, a judge should review it within 24 hours of filing, and the local sheriff has to serve the respondent with the injunction paperwork at no charge.  The respondent is the one that served with the injunction and has to (or should) defend against it.  Never agree to an injunction against you! 

In Florida, there are six different types of injunctions:

1. Domestic Violence

2. Repeat Violence

3. Sexual Violence

4. Dating Violence

5. Stalking

6. Exploitation of a Vulnerable Adult

Click here to learn how to GET an injunction.  

Click here to learn how to FIGHT AGAINST an injunction.

Click here for Free Helpful Injunction Forms and Templates.

Learn All About Injunctions and How They Work in Orlando, FL

While different things must be shown for each kind of injunction, the standard is the same for all six.  The petitioner (the one asking for the injunction) must demonstrate to the court by competent substantial evidence that the requisite violence occurred.

Judges (not juries) decide whether to issue an injunction or not.  If the petition for an injunction is properly filled out and the contents are sufficient to meet the standard, a judge will order a temporary injunction and order a final injunction hearing date be set as soon as possible.  In the meantime, the respondent cannot have any contact with the petitioner and must abide by any other orders the judge included in the temporary injunction – such as not allowing the respondent to return home, or ordering the respondent to continue to pay to support the petitioner (and children, where applicable).

During the final injunction hearing, the parties are not required to have attorneys – although we highly suggest it.  When the hearing is held, both sides are entitled to an impartial decision-maker and the opportunity to present their case.  Either side can call witnesses and present evidence.  This is where an Orlando injunction attorney can significantly help you present to the court your side of the case.  The rules of evidence and court procedure are relaxed somewhat in injunction hearings, but they do still apply.

When the court holds the final injunction hearing, it must make findings of fact that there exists circumstances to warrant the issuance of the injunction.  For example, yelling profanities and threats at the petitioner are not always sufficient – even if they occur on more than one occasion.  A Florida court has even held that a respondent’s statement that he had a gun and that he wasn’t afraid to use was not sufficient to constitute a threat because there was no overt act that indicated an ability to carry out the threat or to justify a belief that any violence was imminent.  Santiago v. Towle, 917 So.2d 909 (Fla. 5th DCA 2005).

If you end up getting an injunction against a person (or end up getting an injunction issued by the court against you), the respondent can be brought back to court for an injunction review hearing. At that hearing, the judge can modify the conditions previously set. The judge can also find the respondent in contempt of court, for failing to abide by the conditions ordered and have them arrested!

How to Seal or Expunge a Restraining Order or Injunction

Most attorneys will tell you that you cannot have a restraining order sealed or expunged. That is not true!  Our top-rated Orlando injunction lawyers have a page dedicated to the process of getting a restraining order (and all documents relating to the case) removed from public record.  Click here.  It is not always easy – but it is possible (especially where the allegations against you are false).

Contact Our Skilled Orlando Injunction Lawyers Today So We Can Help!

Courts usually have many injunction hearings set for any given day and your time before the judge will be limited.  Go into the courtroom with the confidence that you have an experienced trial lawyer with the skills and experience to present your case effectively. Don’t risk getting a false injunction!  At Fighter Law, we strive to be the most skilled injunction lawyers in Orlando.  We help people with injunctions and we are also some of the criminal defense attorneys in Orlando.

Click here to learn how to get text messages from someone else!

Can a person lie in a petition for an injunction?

Yes, people can lie in injunctions.  While injunctions are important to protect victims from legitimate violence and threats of violence, people do sometimes lie in their petitions.  False injunctions happen all the time.  People lie to get injunctions every day – and we are here to help you fight against that.  A final injunction can have serious consequences to your future.    While injunctions are not considered criminal, they have very much the same consequences as criminal cases.

There are many different theories as to why people lie and a skilled injunction lawyer in Orlando should be able to bring to light any motive or bias a petitioner may have to falsely seek an injunction.

Here are some of the theories clients have presented to me over the years:

1. Ex-girlfriends or ex-boyfriends may seek revenge on the other out of jealousy or spite.

2. Spouses going through a divorce in the middle of a heated custody battle over their children think that getting an injunction will win them favor with the family law court or help them get custody of the children.

3. When a former girlfriend learns her boyfriend has been cheating on her – or vice versa.

4. When one person simply wants to interfere with the life of the ex and make their life miserable by dragging them back into court over and over.

5. An ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend wants to embarrass the other by making false allegations against them in an open court.

6. To be able to gain control over the other person.  If a person gets an injunction, all they have to do is call the police claiming the respondent violated the injunction by calling them or coming near them – this often results in the respondent getting arrested.

7. One person wants to get the other kicked out the house to teach them a lesson.

8. Mental illness – some people just lash out at others because they do not have to life skills needed to cope with difficult situations.

Which county court should I file my injunction in?

You can file for an injunction in the county where you live (either temporarily or permanently), where the respondent lives, or where the violence occurred.  There is no minimum residency requirement. You should also look into what community legal support there may be for victims of domestic violence.

Can text messages be used to get an injunction against me?

Yes, text messages can be used in injunctions.  However, anyone can fake text messages.  Therefore, in order to get them entered into evidence for the court to consider, you have to authenticate them.  In other words, there has to be something that shows that the other person in fact sent you the text messages.  Circumstantial factors can be used to “authenticate” the text came from a particular person.  The case to read on this point is Walker v. Harley-Anderson, 45 Fla. L. Weekly D2116a – a 2020 4th DCA case.  Some of the factors include context like the person’s name being contained in the messages, other witnesses who can testify that they have communicated with that person at that number, addresses, things like that which can be linked back to the person.

Can an injunction be dropped if the petitioner does not show up for the final injunction hearing?

Usually, yes.  Absent exceptional circumstances, the court will usually dismiss or throw out the injunction and the respondent will be free to go.

What happens if the respondent does not show at the final injunction hearing?

If the petitioner indicates to the court that he or she still wants the injunction, the court will usually grant the petition and enter an injunction against the respondent.  The court will want to see proof that the respondent was served with notice of the hearing, however.

Can a party (or parties) seek to amend or later dismiss an injunction that has been entered by a judge?

Yes.  Florida law specifically allows for that.  The party (or parties) must petition the court to modify or dissolve the injunction.  But be warned – the injunction will NOT be considered amended or dismissed until the judge signs an order indicated such.

What can the court do to me if they enter an injunction against me?

The court has the authority to order you not to have any contact with the petitioner, to order you to attend classes (including the batterer’s intervention program), to prohibit you owning or possessing any firearms, to have supervised visitation with any children in common and any other conditions the court deems necessary to protect the petitioner.

How can I have social media posts admitted into evidence at the final hearing for injunction?

To get a judge to enter a social media post into evidence (so it can be considered for the injunction), you have to have it authenticated.  The court wants to make sure that it is not a fake and that it actually what you say it is.   Proper authentication requires only that the proponent of the evidence make out a prima facie case that the proffered evidence is what it purports to be.

You can request a subpoena for business records to Facebook or Twitter or Instagram.  You can call the custodian of records for any of those companies, but that is not really realistic.  You can use a screenshot and testify that the screenshot is what you saw on social media when the other person posted it.

Evidence may be authenticated by appearance, content, substance, internal patterns, or other distinctive characteristics taken in conjunction with the circumstances. In addition, the evidence may be authenticated either by using extrinsic evidence, or by showing that it meets the requirements for self-authentication.” Lamb v. State, 246 So. 3d 400 (Fla. 4th DCA 2018).

Authentication for the purpose of admission is generally a low threshold.  A witness just has to say they took the picture or they know the picture is what it purports to be.  The reliability of it (and hence, how much weight to give it) is up to the judge in civil injunction cases.

Here are two recent cases on point:

Facebook Messenger Gilbert v. State, No. 2D19-1622, 2021 WL 2385832 (Fla. 2d DCA 2021) (screenshots which victim took of conversation between victim and defendant over social networking website messenger were sufficiently authenticated where victim testified to the parties’ extensive history of communicating over Facebook Messenger, that his real name and profile picture were in the screenshots, and that the messages referred to things only they would know about).

State v. Torres, 304 So. 3d 781 (Fla. 4th DCA 2020) (Screenshots of text messages through a messaging app were sufficiently authenticated and should not have been excluded by the trial court).  Considering the contents and distinctive characteristics of the messages, “taken in conjunction with the circumstances,” we find the State’s evidence satisfied the “prima facie showing” required to authenticate the messages as having been authored by the other party.”

How can I admit text messages or e-mails into evidence at the final hearing for injunction?

You can ask the court to direct the clerk to send a subpoena to custodians of records for Gmail, cell phone providers and so on.  Usually, when the other party sees that you are going this far, they will cave and realize that you are serious and could really prove the case against them.  However, if you need to see it through, you will need to do certain things.

Once you have the records, you will need to provide it to the other party in advance of the hearing.  At the hearing, you will have to testify that you received those texts or e-mails and that they are the message that you received.  You can also admit screenshots of the texts or e-mails.  That should work as well.

You just have to “authenticate” the text or e-mail and you can do that by testifying that you know the other party uses that phone number or e-mail address.  Or you can authenticate it by showing the court that the e-mail address itself has the other person’s name in it – and it’s not an e-mail address that can be faked (maybe like a university .edu e-mail address, for example).  If you can show circumstances that authenticate it, the court should let them in, which will give you a huge advantage in winning your case – whether you are the petitioner or the respondent.

What happens if I am not served with the injunction?

You MUST be served in order for the injunction process to move forward.  Due process requires that a respondent be served with the injunction papers before the final hearing can take place. If you have not been served, the injunction is technically not enforceable and you cannot violate it. If a final order has been entered without you being served, that is reversible error. In other words, it should be undone. Contact our injunction attorneys in Orlando, FL for legal guidance.

Here are 3 great videos that explain various injunction scenarios:

Orange County Specific Injunction Guidance:

Click here for Orange County Injunction Petition Forms. 

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