![](images/restraining-orders-and-injunctions.jpg)
In California, a civil harassment restraining order is a court order that helps protect people from violence, stalking, serious harassment, or threats of violence. You can ask for a civil harassment restraining order if:
- A person has abused (or threatened to abuse), sexually assaulted, stalked, or seriously harassed you, AND
- You are scared or seriously annoyed or harassed.
Also, the person you want to restrain CANNOT be:
- Your spouse/partner or former spouse/partner,
- Someone you dated at any point, OR
- A close relative (parent, child, brother, sister, grandmother, grandfather, in-law).
The person you want to restrain CAN be:
- A neighbor,
- A roommate (as long as you never dated),
- A friend,
- A family member more than 2 degrees removed, like an aunt or uncle, a niece or nephew, cousins, and more distant relatives, OR
- Other people you are not closely related to.
A restraining order is a court order. It can order the restrained person to:
- Not contact you or any member of your household;
- Not go near you, your children, or others who live with you, no matter where you go;
- Stay away from your work, your school, or your children’s school; or
- Not have a gun.
Once the court issues (makes) a restraining order, it goes into a statewide computer system. This means that law enforcement officers across California can see there is a restraining order in place.
For the person to be restrained, the consequences of having a court order against him or her can be very severe.
- He or she will not be able to go to certain places or to do certain things.
- He or she will generally not be able to own a gun. (And he or she will have to turn in, sell or store any guns he or she has and will not be able to buy a gun while the restraining order is in effect.)
- The restraining order may affect his or her immigration status. If you are a person to be restrained and you are worried about this, talk to an immigration lawyer to find out if you will be affected.
![](images/restraining-orders-and-injunctions2.jpg)
If the person to be restrained violates the restraining order, he or she may go to jail, or pay a fine, or both.
Not only is sexual harassment illegal. The law also prohibits:
- Racial harassment
- Religious harassment
- Age-based harassment
- Harassment based on disability
- Harassment based on ethnicity or national origin
- Retaliation
Most people are familiar with workplace sexual harassment claims. Harassment in professional, business, and educational relationships are also illegal.