Protective Orders: What Happens to Your Pets?
Hi, my name is Clint Hastings, and I’m an attorney here in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I focus on fathers’ rights. Today I would like to tell you about protective orders and pets. I get a lot of calls where guys can’t believe that their wife or girlfriend has ended up with their dog in their order to stay away from them under a protective order. Well, this very well can happen.
If they request that in the protective order, it’s often granted on an emergency ex parte basis, which means without you getting a chance to state your side of it. Now you will get a hearing set within 14 days, and you will be able to state your side, except that sometimes the hearing doesn’t occur within 14 days. You’ll go and it’ll get continued out to another date to have the hearing for things such as discovery taking place, or for you to get an attorney, or things of that nature. And so you may be without that pet for quite a while. It just depends. It could be months.
Protective Order Hearing and Pet Custody
Sometimes people get default orders granted against them because they don’t show up to the hearing, and the default protective order can be for two to three years, and it may have, five years it can be. But it may have that pet still on that protective order, in which case then you have to try to modify it or vacate it, which you will need an attorney to do. But if it’s just for the emergency protective order, hopefully you get your hearing pretty quickly. You make your argument about why that is your dog, or why you should have care of the dog.
Sometimes if there’s a divorce filed in the case, then the protective order judge will kick that issue to the judge on the divorce, and the judge in the divorce will decide who should have the pet. So I hope that helps. Review the site. Let us know if you have any questions, and we will try to get back to you or make a video about your question. Thanks.
Low-cost Strategy Session for Your Case
If you are facing a situation where your pet has been included in a protective order and you need legal assistance, contact us for a low-cost consultation at 918-962-0900. We are here to help you navigate through the legal process and fight for your rights as a pet owner. Don’t hesitate to reach out for the support you need.
