Protective Orders in Austin, Texas

The law can stand between you and harm

If you are in immediate danger, call 911 first. This page can wait. You matter more.

A Texas protective order requires a person who has committed family violence to stay away. From you, your home, your workplace, your children’s school. It can prohibit further violence, threats and harassment, and it can remove that person from a shared home.

Breaking one is a criminal offence, not a private dispute. Police can arrest on it.

Asking for one takes courage, and the process moves faster than people expect. We act in Travis and Williamson counties, with urgency and discretion.

It costs you nothing to file

This is the fact almost nobody knows, and it stops people asking.

Texas law says an applicant for a protective order may not be charged a fee. Not by the district or county clerk, and not by a sheriff or constable. Not to file it. Not to serve it. Not to enter it.

That protection covers the smaller charges too: certified copies, comparing copies to originals, the court reporter, the judicial fund fee, and the fee to modify or withdraw the order.

Cost is not the barrier here. It is worth knowing before you decide whether you can afford to be safe.

Protection the same day, before anyone is notified

Where the court finds from your application that there is a clear and present danger of family violence, it can act at once. It enters a temporary ex parte order. No notice to the other person, and no hearing first. Asking the court to order that person out of a home you share works differently. For that, Texas law requires a sworn affidavit setting out the facts in detail and you appearing in person to testify, and the court must find that you lived there within the last 30 days, that they committed family violence within the last 30 days, and that there is a clear and present danger of it happening again. The judge can also telephone them and give them a chance to be heard before deciding. Whether the court can give you exclusive possession also depends on who owns or leases the home.

That order can direct them to do or stop doing specific things. It is in force from the moment the judge signs it, but breaking a temporary ex parte order is only a criminal offence once the other person has actually been served with it, so police enforcement depends on service. Until you know service has happened, treat yourself as unprotected and stick to your safety plan.

It is temporary by design. A temporary ex parte order lasts for the period stated in it and cannot exceed 20 days. It can be extended for further 20 day periods while the case is pending.

So it is a bridge to the hearing rather than the destination. It buys you the space to get to the final order safely.

The hearing, and what the court has to find

When an application is filed, the court sets a hearing date. It cannot set that first date later than the 14th day after filing, unless you ask for a later one or a narrow exception for district courts in certain counties applies. That first setting can move. If the other person has not been served in time, you can ask the court to reschedule, and the new date must be within 14 days of that request. A hearing can also be reset where notice was too short. So 14 days is the starting rule rather than a guarantee, and preparation matters because it still moves quickly.

At the close of the hearing the court must decide one question: has family violence occurred? If it finds that it has, the court must render a protective order against the person who committed it.

It can also make orders applying to both parties where that is in the protected person’s best interest.

Our job before that hearing is evidence. Messages, photographs, medical records, police reports, dates and witnesses, organised so the court can see the pattern rather than one incident.

How long the order lasts

A protective order runs for the period stated in it, up to two years, and where no period is stated it runs until the second anniversary of the day it was issued. Since 1 September 2025 there are three important exceptions. If the person the order is against is the other party in your divorce, the order runs until two years after the judge signs the final decree. If they are a party with you in a custody suit, it runs until two years after the final order in that suit. If they are charged with a family violence offence under Title 5 of the Penal Code, or with continuous violence against the family, it runs until two years after that criminal case is finally disposed of. So an order made during a divorce or custody case often runs past two years from the day it was signed.

Longer is possible, and the statute says when. The court can order more than two years where it finds the person committed an act amounting to a felony offence involving family violence against you or a member of your family or household. That holds whether or not they were ever charged with or convicted of it.

The same applies where they caused serious bodily injury to you or a member of your family or household, or where two or more previous protective orders have already been made against them to protect you after a court found family violence. Two things can change the end date once an order is in place. The person the order is against can ask the court, no earlier than a year after the order was made, to review whether there is still a need for it, and the fact that they have followed the order is not on its own a reason to end it. Going the other way, if they are in prison when the order would otherwise run out, it is extended past their release. If you receive notice of a review, tell us straight away.

If the order is broken

Call 911 and report it, every time, including the times that feel small. A missed call log or a message sent through somebody else is still a violation.

Violations can mean arrest and criminal charges. They also build a documented record, and that record carries weight in any custody or divorce case that follows.

Keep everything. Screenshots, voicemails, dates, and the incident number from each report. We will help you turn it into something a court can act on.

If an order has been filed against you

Follow it exactly, starting now, even if you believe it is wrong. Breaking it while you wait to explain yourself creates criminal exposure that the hearing cannot undo.

Then get advice before that hearing. It arrives quickly, the finding the court makes is serious, and the consequences reach your job, your firearms and your children’s schedule.

The hearing is where your side is heard. Go into it prepared rather than hoping to explain.