How do I get a restraining order in Florida?

If anyone is in immediate danger, call 911 first. Then: you ask the circuit court for an injunction for protection, which most people call a restraining order, by filing a sworn petition with the clerk. Filing costs nothing, you do not need a lawyer, and the clerk must help you with the forms (§ 741.30). Which of the five Florida injunctions you file depends on your relationship to the other person. If a judge finds an immediate and present danger, the judge can enter a temporary order without the other person present, and it lasts no more than 15 days. The hearing for the final order is set no later than the day the temporary order ends. In Miami-Dade you file at one of the Clerk’s intake locations. In Hillsborough you file at the Edgecomb Courthouse in Tampa, at the Plant City Courthouse, at a sheriff’s or police substation, or online.

01 Which one

Which kind of restraining order do I need?

Florida has five protective injunctions, and your relationship to the other person decides which one you file. Clerks and judges use “restraining order” and “injunction for protection” for the same thing. Each kind has its own statute and its own Supreme Court–approved petition form.

Domestic violence fits a family or household member: a spouse or former spouse, a person related to you by blood or marriage, a person who lives or has lived with you as if a family, or a person with whom you have a child, whether or not you were ever married. Except for parents of a child in common, you must live or have lived in the same single dwelling unit (§ 741.28). You do not have to have been hurt already: reasonable cause to believe you are in imminent danger of becoming a victim is enough (§ 741.30(1)(a)). The form is 12.980(a).

Dating violence fits a romantic or intimate relationship that existed within the past six months, one marked by an expectation of affection or sexual involvement and by involvement over time and on a continuing basis. A casual acquaintance or ordinary social or business contact does not qualify (§ 784.046(1)(d)). The form is 12.980(n).

Repeat violence fits anyone else, such as a neighbor, a coworker or a former friend: two incidents of violence or stalking by that person, one of them within six months before you file, directed at you or at your immediate family member (§ 784.046(1)(b)). The form is 12.980(f).

Sexual violence needs only one incident, such as a sexual battery, whether or not criminal charges were filed, reduced or dismissed. You qualify if you reported it to law enforcement and are cooperating, or if the person was sentenced to state prison for it and the sentence has ended or ends within 90 days (§ 784.046(2)(c)). The form is 12.980(q).

Stalking, which includes cyberstalking, is open to the victim of the stalking, with no relationship required (§ 784.0485). The form is 12.980(t). The numbers are from the Florida Supreme Court’s 2023 order amending these forms, and the clerk will give you the current version.

The relationship decides which petition you file. How serious the fear is does not.

02 Filing

How do I file for a restraining order in Florida?

You file a verified petition with the clerk of the circuit court. For a domestic violence or a stalking petition you may file in the circuit where you live now or are staying temporarily, where the other person lives, or where the violence happened, and there is no minimum period of residency. Leaving home to get away does not cost you the right to file (§ 741.30(1)(d), (1)(j)).

It costs nothing. The statutes bar the clerk from charging a filing fee for domestic violence, repeat, dating, sexual and stalking petitions, and the court may not require a bond (§ 741.30(2); § 784.046(3); § 784.0485(2)).

You do not need a lawyer, and the clerk has to help. The statute says the case does not require that either side be represented by an attorney. Every clerk’s office must provide simplified petition forms with instructions, protect your privacy while you complete them, and give you at least two certified copies of any injunction (§ 741.30(1)(f), (2)(c)).

Everything is sworn. The petition states the specific facts and circumstances: what was said or done, when and where, any threats, weapons, damage to your property, and any earlier order or pending case between you. You sign under penalty of perjury (§ 741.30(3)). Bring the other person’s description, date of birth and an address where he or she can be served. The Hillsborough Clerk also asks you to bring a state-issued photo ID.

The case file is public. A copy of everything you file is served on the other person. Leave out addresses and phone numbers you do not want that person to have. The statute lets a domestic violence petitioner give the court an address in a separate confidential filing (§ 741.30(3)(b)), and the Hillsborough Clerk offers a request for confidential filing of address for domestic violence, sexual violence and stalking petitions.

Tell the truth, and tell all of it. The petition is a sworn statement. The clerk gives each petitioner a statewide brochure about the effect of giving the court false information (§ 741.30(2)(c)). The judge decides from what you swear to, so the dates, the words and the incidents belong in the petition.

03 Temporary order

What is a temporary restraining order, and when does it start?

The judge reads the petition first, without the other person there. If it appears that an immediate and present danger of domestic violence exists, the court may grant a temporary injunction ex parte, pending a full hearing (§ 741.30(5)). At that stage the judge may rely only on the verified petition and any affidavits, unless the other person appears or has had reasonable notice.

What a temporary order can do. It can order the other person not to commit any act of domestic violence, give you temporary exclusive use of a home you share or exclude the other person from your residence, set a temporary parenting plan with a time-sharing schedule on the same basis as § 61.13, and give you temporary care and control of a pet.

It lasts no more than 15 days. The full hearing is set for a date no later than the day the temporary order ends. A continuance for good cause, including time to serve the other person, extends the temporary order so it stays in force through the delay (§ 741.30(5)(c)).

If the judge says no, you are not out. A denial must be in a written order stating the legal grounds. If the only ground is that no immediate and present danger appears, the court must set a full hearing with notice at the earliest possible time (§ 741.30(5)(b)). The Hillsborough Clerk adds that a supplemental petition with more information may be filed after a denial.

Finding out the ruling. The Hillsborough Clerk tells petitioners to call the Clerk, use the online records system or sign up for text notices, and to return to pick up certified copies of any order. In either county, ask the clerk’s staff how you will be told.

The order protects you in practice once it is served. Within 24 hours after the injunction issues, the clerk sends it to the sheriff, who serves the other person (§ 741.30(8)). If the other person appears before service, an officer must accept your certified copy and serve him or her immediately. The Hillsborough Clerk asks you to allow several business days for service. Keep a certified copy with you.

04 The hearing

What happens at the hearing for a final restraining order?

Both people go to court. The other person must be personally served with the petition and the notice of hearing before the hearing (§ 741.30(4)). You must attend, and the Hillsborough Clerk warns that if you do not appear your case could be dismissed. Bring any witnesses and evidence: messages, photographs, medical records, police report numbers.

The judge decides whether you are a victim of domestic violence or have reasonable cause to believe you are in imminent danger of becoming one. The statute lists factors the judge must weigh, including the history between you, threats, stalking, weapons, whether the other person has hurt or threatened a pet, whether the other person kept you from leaving or calling for help, any criminal history of violence, any earlier order, destruction of your phone or belongings, and a pattern of controlling behavior (§ 741.30(6)(b)). The proceeding is recorded.

An advocate may sit with you. If you ask, the court must allow an advocate from a state attorney’s office, a law enforcement agency or a registered domestic violence center to be present, as long as the advocate is able to attend (§ 741.30(7)). The same rule applies to the other person.

What a final order can include. After notice and a hearing, the court may order the other person not to commit domestic violence, give you exclusive use of the shared home, set a temporary parenting plan with up to 100 percent of the time-sharing to you, set temporary support for a child or for you, require the respondent to attend a batterers’ intervention program or counseling, and decide the care of a pet (§ 741.30(6)(a)). The court may not issue mutual orders, though each person may be granted a separate injunction if each has complied with the statute (§ 741.30(1)(i)).

How long it lasts. The statute sets no fixed number of years. The protective terms “remain in effect until modified or dissolved,” and either side may ask the court to modify or dissolve the order at any time (§ 741.30(6)(c), (10)). The order itself shows whether the judge set an end date. If you want the injunction dropped, you must file a motion, and the judge decides it.

A divorce or custody case comes later and ranks above the injunction. If a case under chapter 61 is filed afterward, its orders take precedence over any inconsistent term of the injunction that deals with a chapter 61 subject (§ 741.30(1)(c)). The injunction’s parenting and support terms are temporary and last until a court enters a chapter 61 order. See time-sharing and child support.

A Hope Card. After the final order, you may ask the clerk for a Hope Card, a free wallet-sized or digital card that shows the order’s details and the statewide hotline number. It is issued within 3 business days and is valid for 2 years or until the injunction expires, whichever is earlier (§ 741.311).

The temporary order buys time. The hearing is where the order that lasts is decided.

05 Miami-Dade

Where do I file a restraining order in Miami-Dade County?

You file at a Clerk’s intake location. The Miami-Dade Clerk of the Court takes domestic violence intake at the Lawson E. Thomas Courthouse Center, 175 NW 1st Avenue, Mezzanine, in downtown Miami; the Hialeah District Court, 11 East 6th Street; the Harvey Ruvin Justice Center (formerly the North Dade Justice Center), 15555 Biscayne Boulevard; the Joseph Caleb Center, 5400 NW 22nd Avenue; and the South Dade Justice Center, 10710 SW 211th Street (Eleventh Judicial Circuit). The Domestic Violence Unit’s number is (305) 349-5813.

For Homestead, Florida City and the south end of the county, the South Dade Justice Center is the closest of the five. On weekdays its hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the Clerk lists extra hours for domestic violence petitions on Thursday until 6 p.m. and on Saturday from 9 to 11 a.m. Extended hours take only domestic violence petitions, not repeat, dating or sexual violence or stalking. Call the intake number to confirm before you go.

Plan on at least two hours. The Clerk says intake takes a minimum of two hours, and that completing the Domestic Violence Intake Questionnaire first saves time. At the Lawson E. Thomas Center, the domestic violence office is open Monday to Thursday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and closed on weekends.

There is no Clerk fee for filing or service. A sheriff may charge a service fee if the other person lives outside Florida. The Clerk tells petitioners that the protection takes effect when the other person is served (Miami-Dade Clerk, Domestic Violence).

Help beyond the court. Miami-Dade County runs the Coordinated Victims Assistance Center at 2400 South Dixie Highway, (305) 285-5900, Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Domestic Violence Outreach Units based at the courthouses, which describe their services as help with injunctions, advocacy and referrals. The county lists the Safespace hotline at (305) 679-0303, by call or text, at any hour; the Florida Domestic Violence hotline at 1-800-500-1119; and the National hotline at 1-800-799-7233 (Miami-Dade County).

06 Hillsborough

Where do I file a restraining order in Hillsborough County?

The main place is the George Edgecomb Courthouse in Tampa. The Hillsborough Clerk accepts petitions at 800 E. Twiggs Street, Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Saturdays and holidays from 7 to 10 a.m. The Plant City Courthouse, 301 North Michigan Avenue, takes petitions Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Hillsborough Clerk, filing locations).

You can also start at a substation. The Clerk lists filing substations at four Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office sites, including 14102 N. 20th Street and 7202 Gunn Highway in Tampa and 508 33rd Street SE in Ruskin; at four Tampa Police Department sites, including headquarters at 411 N. Franklin Street; and at the Plant City and Temple Terrace police departments.

Or you can file online. TurboCourt, the Clerk’s online service, walks you through a series of questions, produces the forms and files them electronically. The Clerk asks you to use a computer with a camera so the petition can be notarized. Petitions e-filed after 5 p.m. on a weekday, or on a weekend or holiday, are processed on the next business day. In an emergency the Clerk says to contact law enforcement right away.

Timing. If a temporary injunction or an order setting a hearing is entered, the court schedules the hearing within 15 calendar days of the date you filed. The Clerk says its staff, together with deputized employees of The Spring of Tampa Bay, process petitions seven days a week, every day of the year.

Help beyond the court. The Hillsborough Clerk lists The Spring of Tampa Bay at 813-247-SAFE (7233) for anyone who needs shelter. The Hillsborough Clerk’s number for case information is 813-276-8100, where the recording asks you to say “Restraining Order.”

07 Violations

What happens if someone violates a restraining order?

If the other person is arrested, he or she is held until brought before the court. An officer may use arrest powers to enforce a domestic violence injunction, and the person arrested is held in custody until brought before the court for enforcement and for bail (§ 741.30(9)).

If there was no arrest, you go to the clerk of the county where it happened, who must help you prepare an affidavit of violation or send you to the court’s central intake point. The affidavit goes to the State Attorney, who has 30 working days to decide whether to file criminal charges, move for criminal contempt, or both (§ 741.31(1)–(2)). The Hillsborough Clerk says the affidavit may be the only way the judge learns of the violation.

What counts. The statute lists willfully refusing to vacate the shared home; going to or being within 500 feet of your residence, school, workplace or a place you regularly visit; committing an act of domestic violence; threatening violence; phoning, writing or contacting you in any way, directly or through someone else; coming within 100 feet of your vehicle; damaging your property; and refusing to surrender firearms the court ordered surrendered (§ 741.31(4)(a)). An invitation from the protected person does not remove the order’s terms; only the court can change them.

The penalty. A violation is a first-degree misdemeanor. With a prior conviction for domestic violence or an injunction violation against the same person, it is a third-degree felony (§ 741.31(4)(a), (4)(c)). The court must also order a batterers’ intervention program after a willful violation unless it makes written findings why not (§ 741.31(5)), and a person hurt or put to expense by a violation may be awarded damages, including enforcement costs and attorney’s fees (§ 741.31(6)).

A violation is a separate criminal matter. A person charged with violating an injunction, or with a domestic violence offense, faces a criminal case that runs alongside the injunction. See domestic violence charges.

08 If you are served

What should I do if I am served with a restraining order?

Read it, follow it, and prepare for the hearing. A temporary order can already require you to leave a shared home, stay away from the other person, and follow a temporary parenting plan, and it can be entered before you were heard. The full hearing is your chance to respond. It comes quickly, no later than the day the temporary order ends. The Hillsborough Clerk’s advice is to attend and bring witnesses and evidence.

Do not contact the other person. The no-contact terms cover calls, texts, messages and contact through a friend or relative, and a violation is a crime (§ 741.31(4)(a)). That includes asking the other person to drop the case. Only the court can end an injunction, on a motion.

You may bring a lawyer, and you may have an advocate with you. The statute does not require a lawyer for either side, and it lets the respondent ask for an advocate as well (§ 741.30(1)(f), (7)). The hearing is where you are heard, so plan to be there.

Firearms. While a final injunction for domestic violence or stalking is in force, it is a first-degree misdemeanor to have any firearm or ammunition (§ 790.233), and the final order must say so on its face (§ 741.30(6)(g)). A refusal to surrender firearms the court ordered surrendered is itself a listed violation. Federal law also bars gun possession under certain orders issued after a hearing the person had notice of (18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8)). The Miami-Dade Clerk keeps forms for the respondent’s sworn statement of firearms and for a motion to return firearms after an injunction ends.

The case is civil, and it still matters. Its terms affect where you live, how you see your children and what you may own, and a violation is prosecuted as a crime. The Hillsborough Clerk’s online records search shows any case pending against you in that county.

10 What to do now

1. If anyone is in immediate danger, call 911The petition is a court process, not an emergency response.
2. Write down what happened, with datesSpecific words, acts, places and dates go into the sworn petition, and the judge decides from them.
3. Keep the evidenceScreenshots, voicemails, photographs, medical records, police report numbers and the names of anyone who saw or heard it.
4. Pick the petition that matches your relationshipDomestic, dating, repeat, sexual or stalking. The clerk’s staff can help you choose.
5. File with the clerk, at no costBring photo ID and the other person’s description, date of birth and address. Keep a certified copy of any order with you.
6. Go to the hearing with your witnesses and evidenceIf you do not appear, the case can be dismissed.

12 The sources

• Fla. Stat. § 741.30 Injunction for protection against domestic violenceWho may file, no filing fee, venue, the sworn petition, the ex parte order and its 15-day limit, the hearing, what a final order can include, service and enforcement.
• Fla. Stat. § 741.28 Domestic violence; definitionsThe definitions of domestic violence and family or household member.
• Fla. Stat. § 741.31 Violation of an injunctionThe affidavit of violation, the State Attorney’s 30 working days, the listed violations and the penalties.
• Fla. Stat. § 784.046 Repeat violence, sexual violence and dating violence injunctionsThe definitions, who may file, no filing fee and the 15-day temporary order for the other three injunctions.
• Fla. Stat. § 784.0485 Stalking injunctionWho may file against stalking, including cyberstalking, with no relationship required.
• Fla. Stat. § 790.233 Firearms and a final injunctionNo firearm or ammunition while a final domestic violence or stalking injunction is in force.
• Fla. Stat. § 741.311 Hope CardA free card showing the order’s details, issued within 3 business days after a final injunction.
• Hillsborough Clerk of Court Domestic Violence filing locationsWhere to file in Hillsborough County, the hours, online filing and substations.
• Miami-Dade Clerk of the Court Domestic Violence intakeThe intake locations in Miami-Dade, how long intake takes and how service works.