Restraining Order Prosecution and Defense
The State of Wisconsin provides for the enforcement of remedial injunctive relief, or restraining orders which might forbid a person from contacting another. Harassment and Domestic Abuse Injunctions provide for useful and helpful tools for maintaining the dignity and safety of persons in need of legal assistance.
Unfortunately these important remedial measures are too frequently abused for improper purpose to harm and or spite others and the consequences can be significant. Restraining orders, which are public records, can not only place a person at greater risk of legal persecution but can negatively affect one’s employment prospects. At Kastelic Law Office I both help individuals prosecute their claims for restraining orders and defend against them as well.
Harassment Injunctions
Wis STAT 813.125 defines harassment as the following, (a) Striking, shoving, kicking or otherwise subjecting another person to physical contact or attempting or threatening to do the same. (b)Engaging in a course of conduct or repeatedly committing acts which harass or intimidate another person and which serve no legitimate purpose.
Domestic Abuse Injunctions
…means any of the following engaged in by an adult family member or adult household member against another adult family member or adult household member, by an adult caregiver against an adult who is under the caregiver’s care, by an adult against his or her adult former spouse, by an adult against an adult with whom the individual has or had a dating relationship, or by an adult against an adult with whom the person has a child in common:
- Intentional infliction of physical pain, physical injury or illness.
- Intentional impairment of physical condition.
- A violation of s. 940.225 (1), (2) or (3).
- A violation of s. 940.32.
- A violation of s. 943.01, involving property that belongs to the individual.
- A threat to engage in the conduct under subd. 1., 2., 3., 4., or 5.
The Attorneys Role
In my experience my clients have been far more successful with representation in these disputes as opposed to attempting to resolve them on their own. My first contribution will be to help you organize your evidence and exhibits into the most compelling manner possible. Second, during this pre-hearing phase I like to spend time with my clients in order to prepare their testimony, it’s important to be prepared and to be able to give sworn testimony in a manner that is concise on point and most of all believable. Third I find that most self represented litigants do not really know how to cross examine hostile parties and witnesses, it’s important to understand how to ask leading questions in order to get those same witnesses to undercut and contradict their own accounts. Cross examination is something that I have been doing for nearly a decade.