Harassment Can Mean Upsetting Someone on Purpose

Video Transcribed: What is the definition of harassment for the purposes of a protective order? My name is Brian L. Jackson, I am a dad’s rights attorney in Tulsa with Dads.Law. And I’d like to talk about the statutory definition of harassment under the protective order statutes in Title 22.

So the statutory definition of harassment is as follows. It is a course or the pattern of conduct that serves no legitimate purposes, that would tend to alarm, annoy, or upset a reasonable person, and alarm, annoys, and upsets the victim and serves no legitimate purpose.

Now, where this becomes important for the purpose of a protective order is there are a lot of protective orders that get filed under harassment. And an awful lot of what people call harassment isn’t harassment. I can give you some examples of things that are not harassment that I’ve seen in the file.

One parent calls the other parent too much to talk to the kids. A parent who is calling to talk to the kids, to ask to talk to the kids, and being rebuffed. A singular incident where there is a conflict or some other misbehavior is characterized as harassment.

Trespassing, conversion of personal property. Now those last two, don’t misunderstand me, those may be actionable in other ways. It could be criminal, could be a civil tort. But per se, they’re not harassment unless it is part of a broader course of conduct.

The use of profanity, use of insult. Again, those things could become harassment if you have other facts in play. But in itself, if somebody, if one parent drops an F-bomb at another parent in a heat of an argument, it is not per se harassment.

The key thing is it has to meet those elements. And if it doesn’t meet those elements, it’s not harassment. As far as we’re concerned, if you’re on defense on one of these, it’s worth really understanding what is or isn’t, both if you’re facing a protective order, but also so you can avoid the protective order, begin with, or at least not have it stick in the long run if one is filed against you.

So that’s what harassment is. And if you have questions about that or if you’re facing a protective order, you need a good lawyer. If you are looking for a Tulsa Protective Order Defense Attorney visit Dads.law.