PO Hearings Can Be a Nightmare without Good Counsel

Video Transcribed: So let’s talk about some of the dangers of protective order hearings. My name is Brian L. Jackson, I am a men’s rights attorney in Tulsa with Dads.Law. I’m here today to talk to you about some of the dangers of protective order hearings and why they’re a little bit unique.

Protective order hearings can be a little bit unique in the sense that they typically happen on short notice, and unlike a lot of trials on the merits in civil court, you don’t do a pretrial conference, you don’t have a pretrial conference ordered, there’s no requirement to do a witness or exhibit list like you have in criminal court. So you don’t always know what it is you’re looking at going into court.

Now in Tulsa County, our protective order judge is very good about making the parties exchange exhibits with a reasonable amount of lead time, so at least you’ll get to see the other side’s exhibits and you can do discovery, so you can ask about witnesses and exhibits, but it is not a procedural rule to do a pretrial conference order and layout a pretrial conference order that shows you these witnesses are going to be called, here’s what they’re going to testify to, these are the exhibits, here’s what they’re being introduced to show like you would in most types of civil cases. That’s not done with protective orders.

You may be dealing with some surprises. Another danger you run into with protective orders, and this is something to be very cognizant of, and this is why you really want to walk in unrepresented.

There are instances where judges will allow testimony and evidence supporting allegations that weren’t necessarily referenced in the pleadings for the protective order, and the judge may allow that in and then grant the protective order on that basis with that justification.

So one of the reasons I really, really, really, really emphasize the need for an attorney, especially if you’re on defense in protective order court is that you may run into a situation where the other side talks about one specific incident in the pleadings, but then puts on a bunch of evidence dealing with some other crap that happened later or some other crap that happened years ago that the judge allows in if you don’t object to it and then is used against you to justify entering a protective order.

It’s very important to have somebody there with you who knows the rules of evidence really, really well to raise those objections. Also, who can position you going into the hearing to where the other side is not able to try that kind of tactic to begin with.

This is where appropriate discovery is important. This is where getting the judge to enter orders requiring the other side to present their exhibits early is important, so you know what you’re dealing with walking in that courtroom door.

Because I’m going to tell you right now, you do not want to be in a situation where she whips out some random allegation that you were wholly unprepared to deal with and you’re sitting there going, “Well, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,” because you know what the judge is going to do? “Final order granted.” So it’s important to understand that these are some hazards.

This is why when I litigate these I very frequently try to position my clients to where the other side is incentivized to either settle it or drop it before you go to a hearing because those hearings can be really, really dicey sometimes. And you don’t always necessarily know what evidence you’re going to be dealing with going into the hearing.

I mean if you tail it correctly, you do the discovery, you file appropriate motions, you get the court to restrict the timeframe in which exhibits have to be exchanged and to order it be early enough to give you time to prepare, that puts you in a much better position, but even still, you’ve got to have someone there who knows the rules of evidence and who can position you correctly.

Or you could get blindsided. If you are facing a protective order, it is imperative, to get good counsel for your own good. Get good counsel. If you are looking for a Tulsa Protective Order Defense Attorney visit Dads.law.