Restraining orders are worse than worthless. My husband built a phoney case against me and got a restraining order that kept me 200 feet away from my home and my three small children, including our infant son, for 10 days, until I could get my case heard in court. Of course, the order was vacated, but he replaced it with a gag order where I was forbidden to tell my children anything about what had happened or why. During the ten days my three small children were cared for by his paramour. So in my case, a law that was supposed to protect the innocent and law abiding harmed those innocent and law abiding, my children and me, and yes, I realize that those poor souls who are physically harmed suffer more than I did.
>>...that kept me 200 feet away from my home...<<
200 feet?! You don’t even need a scope for that distance!
;)
Not to make too much light of it though. I actually understand. It seems that a lot of the time, the wrong party is the one that knows how to use the courts.
I had a friend once, who shortly after getting divorce papers from his wife, his wife got REALLY agitated one day and got downright violent. He kept his cool and she finally admited, through tears, that her attorney had told her that if she could get him to hit her, resulting in a 911 call, it would really help her in court.
Interestingly, a week before I was served papers (back in 1997) my then wife did the same thing and pushed me so hard that she fell backwards. It was weird. She got violently angry out of nowhere and for nothing. I learned she had been at the end of her process to get the papers served shortly after that and it was an attempt to do the same thing.
The problem my wife had was twofold:
1. I remembered what happened to my friend.
2. My argument style is to become Mr. Spock. The more animated the other side gets, the more “apparently” calm I get. If I DO eventually lash out it is not to hurt. It is to kill. It would be solely for self defense. It aint gonna happen with a woman unless she is threatening with some sort of weapon that could actually maim or kill.