Domestic Violence Protection in North Carolina

When you’re living with abuse or fear for your safety, every decision feels overwhelming. The thought of taking legal action can seem impossible when you’re just trying to get through each day. At Kelly Thompson Family Law, we understand the courage it takes to seek help, and we’re here to provide the legal protection and support you need to keep yourself and your children safe.

Domestic violence isn’t always physical. It includes emotional abuse, threats, intimidation, controlling behavior, and creating fear for your safety or your children’s safety. North Carolina law recognizes these different forms of abuse and provides legal remedies to protect you. You don’t have to wait until violence escalates or until you’re physically harmed to seek protection.

Understanding Domestic Violence Protective Orders

A domestic violence protective order is a court order that prohibits an abuser from contacting you, coming near you, or engaging in abusive behavior. These orders, sometimes called restraining orders or 50B orders in North Carolina, provide legal protection and consequences if the abuser violates the court’s directives.

To obtain a domestic violence protective order in North Carolina, you must have a personal relationship with the abuser. This includes current or former spouses, people you live with or lived with, people you’re dating or dated, people you have a child with, parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren, and other family members. The order is available regardless of whether you’re married, living together, or in an ongoing relationship.

You must also show that the person committed an act of domestic violence against you. This includes attempting to cause or intentionally causing bodily injury, placing you in fear of imminent serious bodily injury, continued harassment that rises to a level causing substantial emotional distress, or committing certain sexual offenses.

Emergency and Permanent Orders

When you first seek a protective order, you can request an ex parte order, which means the judge considers your request without the abuser being present. If the judge finds immediate danger exists, they can issue a temporary protective order that goes into effect immediately and typically lasts until a full hearing can be held, usually within ten days.

This emergency protection gives you immediate relief and safety while the court schedules a full hearing. The temporary order can require the abuser to stay away from you, leave a shared residence, and avoid contact with you and your children.

At the full hearing, both sides have the opportunity to present evidence and testimony. If the judge finds domestic violence occurred and you need continued protection, they can issue a protective order lasting up to one year. These orders can be renewed if you still need protection when they expire.

The hearing is your opportunity to tell your story and present evidence of the abuse. Text messages, emails, photos of injuries, medical records, police reports, and testimony from witnesses who saw or heard the abuse all help establish your case. We help you prepare for the hearing, gather evidence, and present your situation clearly to the judge.

What Protective Orders Can Include

Protective orders can provide various types of relief depending on your circumstances and needs. The order can prohibit the abuser from assaulting, threatening, abusing, or following you. It can require them to stay away from your home, workplace, school, and other places you regularly go. It can order no contact, meaning no phone calls, texts, emails, social media messages, or contact through third parties.

If you share a residence with the abuser, the order can grant you possession of the home and require the abuser to leave, even if the home is in their name or both names. This provision gives you a safe place to stay while you figure out longer-term housing arrangements.

For couples with children, protective orders can include temporary custody provisions. The court can award you temporary custody of your children and restrict the abuser’s contact with the children if they’ve been abusive toward them or if their behavior puts the children at risk. The order can also require the abuser to stay away from the children’s school and childcare.

The court can order the abuser to surrender any firearms they own or possess. North Carolina law prohibits people subject to domestic violence protective orders from possessing firearms, and judges take this prohibition seriously given the increased danger firearms pose in domestic violence situations.

Protective orders can also address personal property, allowing you to retrieve belongings from a shared residence with police assistance. They can award temporary possession of vehicles or other essential items you need.

The Intersection with Other Family Law Matters

Domestic violence affects nearly every aspect of family law cases. If you’re going through separation or divorce and abuse is part of your relationship’s history, that impacts custody decisions, property division, and whether mediation is appropriate.

In custody cases, courts consider domestic violence when determining what’s in a child’s best interests. A history of abuse toward you or the children affects decisions about custody arrangements and parenting time. Even if the abuse was directed at you rather than the children, courts recognize that witnessing domestic violence harms children and that someone who abuses a partner may not safely parent children.

When domestic violence is present, mediation often isn’t appropriate. Mediation requires both parties to negotiate on relatively equal footing, but abuse creates power imbalances that make fair negotiation difficult or impossible. We’ll be direct with you about whether mediation makes sense or whether your safety requires court intervention.

Protective orders provide immediate relief, but they’re often just the first step in addressing domestic violence within a broader family law case. You may need to pursue custody arrangements that keep you and your children safe. You may need support orders that provide financial stability as you establish independence. You may need property division that allows you to separate your life from your abuser’s.

Safety Planning Beyond Legal Orders

Legal protection is crucial, but it’s not the only aspect of staying safe. We encourage clients to develop safety plans that address what to do if the abuser violates the protective order, how to stay safe at work or in public places, and how to protect children during exchanges if custody orders require contact.

Local resources can provide additional support. Domestic violence organizations offer counseling, support groups, safety planning assistance, and sometimes emergency shelter. We can connect you with these resources as part of helping you build a comprehensive safety plan.

We also talk with clients about documenting violations of protective orders. If the abuser contacts you or comes near you in violation of the order, document it. Save text messages and voicemails. Note the date, time, and location of in-person violations. Call law enforcement when violations occur. This documentation matters if you need to renew the order or if criminal charges are pursued for violating the order.

Enforcement and Violations

Violating a domestic violence protective order is a criminal offense. If the abuser contacts you or comes near you in violation of the order, you should call law enforcement immediately. The police can arrest the person for violating the order, and prosecutors can pursue criminal charges that carry potential jail time.

However, we know that enforcement isn’t always immediate or effective. Some abusers continue violating orders despite legal consequences. Some law enforcement responses are inadequate. If you’re dealing with ongoing violations, we help you document them and pursue additional legal remedies, including seeking criminal prosecution or requesting modifications to the protective order to strengthen its terms.

It’s also important to understand that protective orders don’t guarantee safety. They’re legal documents, not physical barriers. While they provide important legal tools and consequences for abuse, they can’t physically prevent someone determined to cause harm. That’s why safety planning beyond the legal order is so important.

Taking the First Step

Seeking help when you’re in an abusive relationship takes tremendous courage. You might worry about making things worse, about whether you’ll be believed, about disrupting your children’s lives, about financial stability, about countless other concerns that keep people trapped in dangerous situations.

We want you to know that seeking protection is both brave and necessary. You deserve to live without fear. Your children deserve to grow up in safe environments. The abuse is not your fault, and you’re not responsible for your abuser’s choices.

We approach these cases with the sensitivity they require while also being prepared to advocate strongly for your protection. We understand that leaving an abusive relationship often involves multiple attempts, that you may have complicated feelings about your abuser, and that the situation is rarely simple. We’re not here to judge your choices or timeline. We’re here to help you when you’re ready to take action.

Our commitment to accessibility means cost shouldn’t prevent you from seeking protection. We work with clients to make representation affordable, and we can discuss payment options that fit your financial circumstances. In some protective order cases, the court may order the abuser to pay attorney fees, providing another avenue for covering legal costs.

Moving Forward Safely

If you’re experiencing domestic violence or living in fear of an abusive partner or family member, contact Kelly Thompson Family Law to discuss your situation and your options. We can help you obtain a protective order, enforce an existing order, or address domestic violence issues within a broader custody or divorce case.

You can call during business hours or reach out through our website. We understand that contacting an attorney might not be safe if your abuser monitors your phone or computer. If you need to call from a friend’s phone, use a public computer, or take other precautions to reach us safely, please do what you need to do to protect yourself.

We’re here to provide the legal protection you need and to support you through what may be one of the most difficult and frightening times of your life. You don’t have to face this alone. We’re here to help you and your children find safety and build a future free from abuse.