THE WEEK'S CASES: for the week ending February 18, 2011 (Grabbed)

SEVERE LIMITATIONS ON ISSUING PROTECTIVE ORDERS

    Big win for our own Karen Nash!  As you know, they're handing out 

protective orders and stay-away orders like candy, with no notice or 

evidence, based on the police report alone.  This C/A says that a judge 

CAN issue a protective order in a domestic violence case or any case 

where the underlying facts show intimidation or dissuading a witness 

occurred.  Apart from that, in order to issue a protective order there 

has to be evidence that the case is a domestic violence case or that a 

witness has been intimidated.  Absent that, the court CAN'T issue a 

protective order.  Period.  The C/A doesn't answer all of our questions 

about notice, but it's clear that we're entitled to an actual contested 

hearing with notice and some kind of evidence beyond merely what the DA 

says.  And they say that what happened here wasn't sufficient notice, 

where, as usual, the DA sauntered in and demanded a protective order 

without any notice or any evidence.

    Babalola v. Superior Court; 2011 DJ DAR 2426; DJ, 2/15/11; C/A 2nd, 

Div. 7