Casey Jordan

Restraining order and an order of protection are two different things.

But the order of protection is a legal document.

You have to go and present your evidence and convince a judge that restrictions should be put on this person.

And they are very often tailored to the particular situation.

Because so many times orders of protection are actually between people who have had a relationship.

That's where it gets complex.

Because she's insisting, I've never had a relationship with this guy.

It's not like he's an ex-boyfriend.

So if you haven't had a prior relationship, it's really important to document, document, document.

I'm going to return to that theme later.

But she was able to convince a judge.

Here are all the things he's done over the last three years.

Not only did I move out of state, but he applied and got into the same program that I was in.

Because how do you get to kick somebody out of a program just because they are in it with you?

She documented everything.

And the judge was so convinced in this particular case that he gave her an order of protection for six years, which is an incredibly long time.

Yeah.

In other words, the judge had never done that before, truly believed her and wanted to protect her.

And here's the interesting thing.

Orders of protection, we often say, aren't worth the paper they're written on, because by the time somebody violates the order of protection, you could be dead.